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[Reprinted from THK AMKRICAN IIlS'1 ORICA1 Uh vnw, Vol. XI., No. I, October, I905.] 



A I* 



Letters of John Ouincy Adams to Alexander Hamilt on 
Everett, 1811-1837 

{First Installment.) 

The originals of the following letters are in the Library of Con- 
gress. They are here presented with the courteous permission of the 
librarian. They are written, with apparently only one exception — 
the letter of December 6, 181 5 — in Adams's own hand. They do not 
give us much definite or particular information concerning any im- 
portant historical facts, but they help to bring into new and higher 
relief some of the qualities of the writer, and they possess moreover 
literary charm which gives them intrinsic interest. Alexander 
Hamilton Everett, to whom all the letters were addressed, is perhaps 
best known by his literary work, although he held various public 
positions of importance. Born in Boston in 1790, he was graduated 
at Harvard, commenced the study of law in Adams's office, and in 
1809 accompanied Adams on his mission to Russia. In 181 2 he re- 
turned to America and soon afterwards was appointed secretarv of 
the legation to the Netherlands (1815). Again coming back to 
America he was in 1818 made charge d'affaires at the Hague. In 
1824 he gave up this position and in the following year was ap- 
pointed by President Adams minister to Spain, a position which he 
retained for four years. Soon after his return to the United States 
he became editor of the North American Review, a journal to which 
he had already contributed a number of articles, and of which his 
brother, Edward Everett, had for a time been editor. This position 
he occupied for five years ; and at the same time he was a member 
of the Massachusetts legislature. For a short period he served as 
president of Jefferson College, Louisiana, but in 1845 again entered 
the diplomatic service by accepting the mission to China. He died 
in Canton, June 29, 1847 (Xiles's Register, LXXIII. 113, 116). The 
letters written to him by Adams indicate in some measure the extent 
of his literary and scholarly attainments. He was master of an 
unusually good, though we should now say a formal and somewhat 
stilted, style. He wrote clearly and forcibly on political, financial 
and economic subjejts, as well as on purely literary matters. 

Andrew C. McLaughlin. 
(88) 



89 Documents 

I. 
M' A. H. Everett — 

S! Petersburg 2. September 1811. 
Dear Sir. 

M, iN'avarro ' has already one letter from me for you ; but it has been 
so long written, and his departure has been so long postponed that I am 
afraid before it reaches your hands it will be quite out of date. Since I 
wrote it, we have received your favour of 13. August enclosing that of 
the 1 1"' to M'. s Adams. 

If you had been travelling in Scotland instead of Sweden, we should 
certainly have concluded from a passage in the letter of the 11"' that the 
gift of second sight had come upon you by sympathy. The second sight, 
I understand, beholds things as they happen, twenty-four hours before 
hand. Your letter of the 1 1 "' foresees the singular addition of a fair 
Russian in our family ; and behold on the 12"' the fair Russian actually 
appeared. To judge from your extasies at the view of the Swedish 
ladies, and from certain inuendo's concerning the complexions of those 
you had left behind you, possibly a fair Russian is a marvel, which proph- 
ecy itself not even your own prophecy can make you believe. 

I thank you much for the trouble you took to copy and send me the 
abstract from M| Smith's pamphlet. 2 I had barely heard before I re- 
ceived your letter that there was such a thing, and it had much excited 
my Curiosity. Since then I have seen the Aurora of 26. June into 
which the whole pamphlet is copied. I was very sorry to see it. But 
there are things for which the proverb tells us there is no help. 

Our tide of Americans ebbs and flows here as usual. Since you left 
us there have been many arrivals and some departures. The stock of 
your acquaintance remains much the same. 

Count Pahlen 3 is removed as Russian Minister, from the United 
States, and goes in the same capacity to the Court of Brazil. M r Dasch- 
koff * is appointed Minister at Washington in his place. There are four 
Russian Gentlemen going out in the Dorothea an American vessel bound 
to Philadelphia — M r Swietchkoff as Secretary of Legation, M r Kosloff 
as Consul General. M' Swienin as adjoint Consul and M' Elidsen as 
private Secretary to M' liaschkoff. 

The week before last an English sloop of War, commanded by Cap- 
tain Fenshaw, arrived at Reval, escorting four or five English Store-ships 
laden with sulphur, Saltpetre, lead and gunpowder. Captain Fenshaw 
wrote to his father and brothers whom you know, requesting to see them. 
The Store-ships came, despatched from England by the British Govern- 

1 Chevalier Navarro d'Andrade, charge d'affaires from Portugal, with whom 
Adams had formed a pleasant acquaintance. 

2 Robert Smith's Address to the People of Ike Ur.itcd States, (Baltimore, 
1S1 1 ), giving an "exposition" of the circumstances which caused his resignation 
of the Secretaryship of State. 

3 Count Theodore de Pahlen, minister to the United States from June 25, 
1810, to November 14, 1S11. 

4 Andre de Dashkov, minister from November 15, 1811, to March 6, 1819- 



Letters of Adams to Everett 90 

ment, and their warlike burden, according to the English Newspapers 
was for the use of the Russian armies, to be employed against the Com- 
mon Enemy. Those Newspapers and the ships arriving here at the same 
time put us all here into such a fluster, as you, who know the ground 
will readily conceive. There was much chuckling in one quarter. Some 
long faces in another. On 'change the whispering, and the buzzing, and 
the asserting and the denying, and the head-shaking, and the mysterious 
look of Wisdome, lasted longer than usual — four or five days at least. 
At last it turns out that the Emperor gave permission to General Fenshaw 
and his Sons to visit their Relation, on board the Sloop of War — and 
then he and his store-ships received a notification to depart as they came, 
and that if they did not go with all due speed, their next notice would 
be that there was still powder and. Ball to spare in Russia, as much as 
was needed to be employed against the Common Enemy. 

You speak of having seen Baron Engestrom's library at his town- 
house, but do not tell me whether you had seen the Baron himself. I 
rather infer that he was in the Country, and of course that you had not 
an opportunity of delivering to him my letter. I hope you received the 
packet I sent you by M r Hochschild. 

We are all as well as can be expected, excepting Catherine, who has 
been three or four days confined to her chamber with a cough and fever ; 
but being this day able to leave ft, I hope in a day or two more she will 

be well again. 

I am, Dear Sir, truly yours 

A. 

II. 
A. H. Everett Esq' — London. 

S! Petersburg 28. October 1S11. 
Dear Sir. 

I received only at the close of last week your letter of 20. Septem- 
ber, dated at Gothenburg. We had previously heard by letters to others 
of your friends here, and by accounts of travellers that you had been un- 
well both at Stockholm and at Gothenburg, and were therefore more 
than usually anxious to learn from yourself of your entire recovery. 
Your letter was therefore peculiarly acceptable. I only marvelled that 
you should have thought an apology necessary for the frequency of your 
writing. I have been more apt to ask myself what your apology would 
be for not writing oftener. 

I wrote you two letters by M' Navarro, who we suppose must have 
overtaken you at Gothenburg. Soon after he took his departure M r Gray 1 
and M r Jones - left us, and proceeded together for Paris. They will there 
be so much nearer to you than we are that I suppose you will hear directly 
from them before this reaches you. M r Jones expected to go himself to 
London in December. A few days after they went away there came a 

1 Francis C. Gray, who for a time was attached to the American legation in 
Russia. Adams's Memoirs, II. 3. 

2 T. K. Jones, a young man travelling in Europe for pleasure. 



9 1 Documents 

letter from you to M r Gray. I forwarded it very soon after by a Courier 
dispatched by the Ambassador, and as it probably travelled faster than 
M r Gray, I hope he will have found it ready for him at Paris. I have 
had one letter from him, dated at Berlin. 

Jf you have met M' Navarro, he doubtless will have mentioned to 
you that he was present at the Christening of my daughter, whose name 
is Louisa-Catherine. She has hitherto been blessed with excellent health, 
and I think has much improved that of her mother. 

We continued at the residence on the borders of the Nevka, 1 where 
you left us untill the 8"' of this Month, when we returned into the City, 
to a house in the near neighbourhood of that where we dwelt before. 
The Winter is setting in earlier than it did last year ; or the year before ; 
and at the moment when I am writing the Bridges are all displaced, and 
the river though not yet fixed is full of floating ice. 

The report you heard at Gothenburg, of hostilities having already 
commenced, was, like the story of the Irishman's having been hanged, 
premature. It will be time enough for hostilities next Summer. But 
General Kutuzoff" has been beating the Turks; and we have had here 
almost ever since you left us, a Comet in full view, of such a bloody- 
minded appearance, that the malignum vulgus have been swearing the 
Peace against it without intermission. War or Pestilence you know has 
been shaken time immemorial from the horrid hair of Comets, and one 
of them will not be sufficient for this one which all the learned Astrono- 
mers tell us has got two tails. 

I have not yet had the advantage of meeting either with Silliman's 
Travels, 3 or with the Itineraire.' If the importance of our Countryman's 
observations is to be measured by the specimen you have selected, I fear 
he will not be able to stand a contest with the Genie du Christianisme ; 
but M' Prevost, who has promised me the Itineraire, and has read it 
himself says there are some important occurrences in that too. Such as 
a Turk's firing a pistol over his own head, to frighten the traveller; and 
the traveller's returning the fire in like manner, to shew his intrepidity. 
Also the history of sundry bastonades which he administered personally 
to certain other Turks or Jews or some such " circVuncised dogs " by way 
of occasionally relieving his mind from the intensity of philosophical 
observation. Travellers must have the privilege of sleeping sometimes, 
but I know not why a Yankey traveller should require more slumber than 
another. After all, the anecdote told by the Yale Professor is at least 
more credible than the project of his rival to drain all the rivers of 
antient Greece, with one dash of his pen. 

1 Xeva ? 

-Michel [larionovitch Kutuzov (1714-1813). From 1S09-1811 he made suc- 
cessful war against the Turks. He is now remembered chiefly because of his 
struggle against Napoleon during the invasion of 1812. 

3 Benjamin Silliman, A Journal of Travels 111 England, Holland and Scotland 
and of two Passages over the Atlantic in the Years 1S03 and 1S06 (New York. 
1810). 

4 Itineraire de Paris a Jerusalem et de Jerusalem a Paris, by Chateaubriand, 
the first edition of which appeared in 181 1. 



Letters of Adams to Everett 92 

The most important Event of a public Nature, which this City has 
witnessed since you left it, is the consecration of the Kazan Church 
which took place about one month ago — and the next was the funeral 
service over the remains of Count Strogonoff 1 the " Boyar" , which was 
the first religious ceremony solemnized in the Church after its Consecra- 
tion. It had been entirely built under the superintendence of the Count, 
as President of the Academy of Arts. He just lived to see the work 
completed, a\id died lamenting that as his funeral would be so magnifi- 
cent, he could not be present to see it. 

Among the Americans who have lately arrived here, is an acquaint- 
ance of yours, a young M r Ingraham of Boston. He was at Gothenburg, 
but on Board ship while you was in that-City, and I believe on the very 
day of the date of your letter, was disappointed of a visit he was going 
to make you on shore, by a signal to sail. 

I am with great regard and esteem, Dear Sir, your friend and h b ! e 
Serv! 

John Quincy Adams. 

III. 

Alexander H. Everett Esq r — London. 

S' Petersburg 26. January 181 2. 
Dear Sir. 

On the cover of my last Letter to you, I minuted the receipt of your 
favour of 5. Dec^ enclosing the message, which I had received after having 
closed the letter itself. But M r Williams, one of our Countrymen, who 
arrived last Summer at Archangel, being now on his way home goes with 
a Courier's Pass and my despatches, and I take the opportunity to thank 
you more particularly for this attention, and the others which you have 
had both in Sweden and in England of communicating to me important 
intelligence from our Country. 

We are all in a state of convalescence from a certain distemper called 
the grippe. I know not why unless it be because it seizes people by the 
throat. I have it in express charge to ask you again for the long anecdote 
which you heard at Stockholm and which you did not relate, on the pre- 
sumption that we had heard it before. 

If you were a woman, I would tell you of all the marriages among 
the batchelors and virgins of this Court that are in a process of consumma- 
tion or of negotiation. Marriage is to the ladies a topic so interesting 
per se that they need no acquaintance, still less friendship with the 
parties to hear with some sort of feeling of every individual case in which 
it occurs. But why should I tell you of weddings between People for 
whom you and I have no other regard than as they belong to the Species. 

The political rumours in Circulation are all of a pacific character. 
Peace with the Turks is supposed to be concluded, but has not yet come 
in official shape. Peace with France still subsists, and it is said is more 

Probably Alexander, Count Strogonov, 1734-1811, grand chamberlain and 
president of the Academie de Beaux Arts. 



93 Documents 

likely to subsist further than was expected last Summer. There is another 
Peace de facto, which will probably continue without the assistance of 
Treaties or Conventions. 

I am, with great esteem and regard, Dear Sir, your friend and humble 
Serv* 

John Quincy Adams. 

IV. 
M r A. H. Everett — 

S! Petersburg io. April 1812. 
Dear Sir. 

I have received your favour of 3. Jan 1 from London, forwarded by 
M r Navarro, and although uncertain whether this letter will find you 
still in England, I will not pass by the opportunity of thanking you for 
it. 

Your representation of the state of things in England, though far 
from being drawn in dazzling or even in gay colours, has I am con- 
vinced the more substantial merit of truth. Almost all the English 
travellers who have for some years past favoured the public with their 
observations made in America have thought proper to represent our 
National character as vicious, upon no better foundation than that they had 
witnessed in America, individual instances of Vice. The Edinburgh 
Reviewers, with an eye of philosophical penetration worthy of Peter 
Pindar's magpie peeping into a marrow-bone, prophecy that the Amer- 
ican character, which they pronounce positively bad now, will be greatly 
improved, when Wealth comes to be more generally inherited than 
acquired? If for all the moral and political pollution that the whole 
manufactory of English dragnets has been able to gather from all the 
foul bottoms of the American Continent, our improvement from the 
prevalence of hereditary wealth, is to consist in a substitution of innum- 
erable nightly assassinations, burglaries and larcenies — Lud's men 2 to 
break stocking weavers' frames, and Irishmen to knock down for sport 
people as they are coming out of Church — Catholics driven to rebellion 
by religious persecution, and a master sacrificing his friends, his friend- 
ships and his principles for " Pancni ct Circenses", I would put it as a 
problem to the arithmetical acuteness of the Edinburgh Philosophers, 
how much we shall be gainers by the exchange? 

I have seen in some of the newspapers that the Attorney General, 
Sir Samuel Romilly, in speaking officially of some of those dreadful 

1 In a review of Travels in America (London, 1809) by Thomas Ashe. The 
reviewer is not unfriendly in his tone and does not approve Ashe's efforts to 
" have us believe that the Americans are universally and irreclaimably vicious." 
" When wealth comes to be more generally inherited than acquired, there will 
be more refinement, both in vice and in manners ; and as the population becomes 
concentred, and the spirit of adventure is deprived of its objects, the sense of 
honor will improve with the importance of character." Edinburgh Review. XV. 
442. 

2 The reference is of course to the breaking of machinery in the Ludditc 
riots of the time. As to origin of name see Traill and Mann. Social England, V. 
841. 



Letters of Adams to Everett 94 

enormities mentioned in your letter, lamented them as indications of a 
character peculiarly vicious in the English Nation. The remark might 
be proper in a public officer whose duties are in some sort those of a 
Censor Morum, but it would not be liberal in a foreigner, to consider 
transactions of such a nature as evidences of National Character. I do 
not so consider them. But they may fairly be taken as presumptive 
proofs that the representations of unparalleled virtue, and superhuman 
felicity, which American Painters have drawn as characteristic attributes 
of the English Nation, are as wide from the real truth, as the Smelfun- 
gus colouring of the British Travellers in America. This contrast ot 
falsehood between the English^ pictures of America, and the American 
pictures of England has struck me as peculiarly remarkable, and has in 
no small degree mortified my patriotic feelings as an American. Its 
effect in our own Country has been doubly mischievous, by exciting 
among many of our young minds a disgust and contempt of their Coun- 
trymen, and an extravagant and foolish admiration of another Nation. I 
am very glad that you have had an opportunity of observing for yourself 
the real condition of Nature, of Men and of Society in England. I will 
not say that its tendencies will be to produce a salutary review of some 
of your own prejudications; but I hope and believe it will tend to cor- 
rect some of the prejudices of others. You have doubtless seen much to 
admire, and you have too much Justice and good-sense to depretiate that 
which is estimable, for the place where it is found. But there is withal 
in England a Spirit of arrogant pretension, and a gloss of splendour, 
which may be seen through, without any great depth of penetration. I 
am well assured and the persuasion gives me pleasure, that on your 
return to our native shores you will be able from the heart to say with 
Voltaire's Tancrede " Plus je vis d'Etrangers, plus j'aimai ma Patrie". 

As it appears that the British Government, still deem an adhesion to 
their Orders in Council expedient, I see no prospect of an amicable or 
indeed of any other arrangement of their disputes with America. Their 
present professions of amity and conciliation appear to be borrowed from 
the practice of their own Gentlemen of the Road, who take a Traveller's 
purse with all possible amenity and decorum. I think however their 
present partiality to the Orders in Council proceeds from the belief, not 
without reason, that they will produce a rupture between France and 
Russia. A very few Months will discover to the World, though probably 
not to them on what foundations this reliance stands. 

You know the only glimpses we can catch of English Literature, are 
an occasional pamphlet or Review, brought by a Traveller to amuse him 
on the road. M' Patterson last Summer brought some of the then latest 
numbers of the Edinburgh Review, in one of which I met that oracular 
sentence upon the National Character of the Americans, which I have 
just alluded to. There too I found a long, and much more amusing 
account of the Curse of Kehama : ' it excited the wish to see the Book 

1 The Curse of Kehama, by Robert Southey (London, 1810). 



95 Documents 

itself. The mode of reviewing, practiced by the Edinburgh Critics is 
new, and they have made it fashionable. They give the title of a book, 
and then publish a Dissertation of their own upon the subject of which 
it treats. Their Essays are tinctured with strong prejudices, mingled up 
with a curious compound of scholastic dogmatism, and fine gentleman- 
tility. I remember reading an Account in one of their former numbers, 
of a voluminous edition or translation of Sallust, in which they said they 
had been accustomed to read Sallust in books about the size of a hand at 
whist. I read however almost all their Treatises ; and many of them 
with entertainment and instruction. In the Review of the Lady of the 
Lake 1 there is a disquisition upon the sources of Walter Scott's popu- 
larity as a Poet, with which I was very much pleased. Some of its ideas 
are repeated in the review of Southey's Curse — and while they tell us 
here how M r Southey does not do so and so like M r Scott, they inform 
us on the other hand how M r Scott does not use the machinery of M r 
Southey. Don Roderick? I have not yet seen, but among the readers of 
Poetry here there are some who have and who say it is the author's 
Master Piece. That I suppose, is because, as was said to account for the 
vogue of another book, it is Poetical, Political and Personal. If Don 
Roderick is a great admirer of Lord Wellington, he ought to give at the 
same time his candid opinion of the Duke of Albufera. 

I condole with you upon the extinction of that illustrious luminary 
of letters and Science the monthly Anthology.' If the General Reposi- 
tory of Literature, 4 gives but once a quarter to the Public as much wit 
and as much Wisdom, as the Anthology was wont to emit every Month, 
it will deserve as long a life, and enjoy as fair a prospect of immortality. 

It may awaken some of your most familiar, if not your warmest 
recollections of Russia, to tell you that hitherto, we have scarcely the 
slightest indication of the breaking up of Winter. In reference merely 
to the thermometer it has been the mildest of the three that we have 
overlived here ; but the Neva has already been solid very little short of 
six Months, and the Snow is at this moment as deep or deeper than it 
has been at any part of the Season. To us it has been a Winter of sick- 
ness and affliction. My family remains as when you left us; excepting 
the addition of our daughter. 

I have little to say about the political aspect of affairs, because 
wherever my letter may find you, it is probable the expected War will 
have had the start of it. From the manner in which France and Russia 
are holding the sword over each others head it would seem that both 
parties "no second stroke intended". All the regiments of Guards 
have already marched from S' Petersburg; the Minister at War, who is 

1 Edinburgh Review, XVI. 263-2g$. 

2 The Vision of Don Roderick, published July 15. 1S11. 

3 The Monthly Anthology and Boston Review, published from 1803 to 1811. 
Everett was himself a contributor. The paper was used by the Anthology Club 
of Boston as a vehicle of communication with the public. 

4 The General Repository and Review, which began to be published in Cam- 
bridge in 1812. 



Letters of Adams to Everett 96 

the Commander in Chief of the principal army, and the Grand Duke are 
gone, and the Master goes perhaps to-morrow. The Ambassador and 
the Ministers of the Confederation are still here, but on the wing. Two 
persons of high distinction have been dispatched very lately to Siberia, 
or — elsewhere. 

I am, Dear Sir, ever truly your's 



V. 

A. H. Everett Esq' Boston. 

Ghent 16. July 1S14. 
Dear Sir. 

The pleasure that I never fail to derive from your Communications 
has hitherto been attended by two Circumstances, the impression of 
which upon my mind has been to give them additional value, though in 
their own Xature such as I could not but regret. The first is the length 
of time that elapses between them ; and the second the lapse of time 
after they are written, when I have the good Fortune to receive them. 
Since your return to the United States, this enjoyment has befallen me 
but twice — first by your letter of 12. February 1S13. which I answered 
on the io ,h of the ensuing June ; and secondly by yours of 25 June 18 13. 
which in little less than twelve Months from its date was received by me 
on the Road from Stockholm to Gothenburg, in the Night of the 2? and 
3 d of the last Month. I had myself written to you on the io" of October 
1S12. in answer to your last Letter from England, forwarded by M r 
Poletica. 1 I am not without apprehension that you have never received 
this, for I know that a Letter to another of my friends in America, nearly 
of the same date, and sent by the same conveyance was not received by 
him so late as in January last. I gave them both to a M' Jackson of 
Xewbury-Port, whom I furnished with a Courier's Passport, and who also 
took Dispatches for the Government. I have understood that he arrived 
in America in March 1813, and I believe that he transmitted to Wash- 
ington the Dispatches. What disposal of the private letters he made. I 
am not informed.. That for you, I was especially desirous that you 
should receive in due time, because it contained the Certificate which 
vou had requested in your Letter from London. I would now send you 
a duplicate of both, but the Certificate would be useless to you, and the 
Letter has nothing in it to deserve that a second copy of it should be 
taken, particularly, as I have not here the aid of any Secretary. 

I have also reason to fear that my Letter of 10 June 1813. had not 
been received by you so late as the 16"' of March last. I gave it to M' 
]. W Smith, who was going to London, and who died there in Febru- 
ary. Other Letters which I sent at the same time by M r Tilden reached 
their destination in due Season, but I know that one of the Letters taken 
bv M r Smith, and which was to my Mother had not been receivea by 

1 Pierre de i J oletica, formerly secretary of legation under Count Pahlen in 
America. 



97 Documents 

her. and I have no reason to hope that the others which I committed to 
the same Gentleman were more fortunate. 

If these conjectures are well founded you have not yet since your re- 
turn to the United States, received one Letter from me, and you have 
cause to think me a Correspondent more neglectful, or at least deficient 
in punctuality, than I would willing be thought by any person who 
takes the trouble of writing to me ; and most especially by you to whom 
I should be peculiarly solicitous of appearing in the light the most oppo- 
site to that of negligence. I mentioned in my last Letter to you that I 
had received and read with poetical Pleasure your brother's <I>. /■'. A. 
poem, 1 though I had not been equally gratified by its political complex- 
ion. I have learnt since then, from my Mother, that he has assumed the 
arduous and honourable task of succeeding our lamented friend Buck- 
minster ; an occasion upon which he might emphatically say "who is 
sufficient for these things". 2 I have the satisfaction of being one of 
the Proprietors in that Church, and I look forward with pleasure to the 
period, when with my family, 1 shall be an habitual attendant upon his 
ministration. I will not promise to agree with him in Politics, nor even 
in religious doctrine; but there is one, and that the most essential point 
upon which I am confident we shall never disagree — 1 mean Christian 
Charity. 

1 regret that with your Letter I had not the pleasure of receiving the 
copy of your address to the Charitable Fire Society, and I have heard 
from other Quarters of certain political Speculations of yours, which I 
have more than one reason for wishing to see. As your design of enter- 
ing upon the field of public discussion has been carried into Execution, 
and as American Principles are the foundation of the system to which 
you have pledged your exertions, you will not doubt the interest which I 
shall take in every step of your career. Notwithstanding the inauspic- 
ious appearances of the present moment, I humbly trust in God, that 
American Principles will ultimately prevail in our Country. But should 
it be otherwise ; in the inscrutable decrees of Divine Providence, should 
the greatness and Prosperity, to which the continuance of the Union 
cannot possibly fail of exalting our Native Country, be deemed too 
great for mortal man to attain ; should we be destined to crumble into 
the vile and miserable fragments of a great Power, petty, paltry principal- 
ities or Republics, the tools of a common Eneniv's malice and Envy, 
and drenching ourselves age after age in one another's blood ; far pref- 
erable should I deem it to fall in the Cause of Union and of Glory, than 
to triumph in that of Dismemberment, Disgrace and Impotence. As 
Christians, whatever befalls us or our fellow men we must submit to the 
Will of Heaven ; but in that case I should be tempted to say with Lucan 
"Victrix Causa Dis placuit, Sed Victa Catoni." 

'The subject was "American Poets". See "Tribute to Edward Everett" 
by George Ticknor, Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings. 1864-1865, p. 134. 

2 Edward Everett, then not twenty years of age, succeeded Joseph Stephen 
Buckminster as minister of the Brattle Street Church in Boston. 

AM. HIST. REV., VOL. XI. — 7. 



Letters of Adams to Everett 98 

The failure of the attempt at Negotiation under the mediation of the 
Emperor of Russia, by the refusal of the English Government to treat 
with us under that mediation has long since been known to you ; and 
before this Letter comes to your hands you will have learnt how and why 
the substituted Negotiation which was to have been held at Gothenburg 
has been transferred to this City. The Original proposal of Gothenburg, 
and the removal hither were both suggested on the British side, and 
merely assented to on our part. I have been here upwards of three 
weeks, waiting only for British Commissioners, who might at any time 
be here in three days, and who well know that all the members of the 
American Mission are here. From these Circumstances you may judge 
of the disposition of the British Government with regard to Peace, and 
probably you may have very shortly still more derisive evidence to the 
same point. 

Of the late Revolutions on the Continent of Europe it is scarcely 
possible to speak without prejudice in reference to the past, or without 
presumption with regard to the future. The minds of men are still too 
much heated on all sides to form a deliberate judgment, either upon the 
nature and tendency of Events, or upon the character and conduct of 
persons. The only thing of which there can be no question is the over- 
throw of the Power of France, accomplished by the overthrow of Napo- 
leon Buonaparte. France from the first can scarcely claim the fourth 
place in the Rank of European Nations. From the Mistress she has 
become the foot-ball of Europe. It is for the Bourbons to restore her to 
her place, as she, or rather England, has restored them to their' s. I 
wish they may prove adequate to the task. 

I am, Dear Sir, sincerely and faithfully your's 

John Quincy Adams. 

VI. 



A. H. Everett Esq' The Hague. 



London 27 July 1S15. 



Dear Sir 

Your favours by M r Dana, by the two M r White's, and by your 
brother had been received by me, since my arrival here ; and I had been 
apprehensive that your voyage would still be postponed ; so that your's 
of the I7 lh from the Hague would have been an unexpected pleasure, but 
for the previous arrival at Liverpool of the Panther, one of whose Pas- 
sengers informed me that she had sailed from Boston, the same day with 
the Congress. 

I congratulate you upon your introduction to the regular diplomatic 
career. When M r Smith had concluded last Summer to return to the 
United States, I wrote to the Secretary of State, requesting that if I was 
to return to Russia, you might be appointed Secretary to that Legation. 
As there was then no prospect that the Negotiation at Ghent would ter- 
minate in Peace, and consequently none of a mission to this Country, I 
merely added that if such a mission had been the result of the Negotia- 



99 Documents 

tion, and confided to me, as I had received notice was the President's 
intention, I should still have requested that you might be the Secretary 
to the Legation. That my recommendation of you was earnest I now 
the more readily avow, because I gave by it a large pledge to the Gov- 
ernment of our Country, which it is for you to redeem. I assured the 
Secretary of State, that in presenting you to the President's Considera- 
tion, I was governed more by motives of zeal for the public service, than 
of personal friendship for you. My Sentiments are still the same. For 
my own satisfaction, and for the pleasure of your Society I wish that you 
had received the appointment, as Secretary to this Legation. I shall 
write to the Secretary of State, and renew the request that you may be 
appointed to it. But for the public Service, and for your own advantage, 
you are for the present at least, perhaps as well, perhaps better situated 
than you would be here. My own residence here will very probably be 
short. Every American who has resided so long as five or six years in 
Europe, ought to go home to be new-tempered. I recommend this to 
your future practice, as during my whole life, I have found the benefit, 
and necessity of it for my own. 

At an earlier and more perilous age, you have once passed unhurt 
through the ordeal of European Seductions and Corruptions. I have the 
confident hope that one victory will be the earnest of another. Put you 
will not deem it impertinent if I intreat you to "keep your heart with 
all diligence ". ' The fascinations of Europe, to Americans situated as 
you are and may hereafter be, present themselves in various and most 
dissimilar forms — Sensuality — Dissipation — Indolence — Pride, — and 
last, and most despicable, but not least — Avarice. This though not so 
common as the rest is not less dangerous and not less to be avoided. It 
appears in temptations to trading speculation or stock-jobbing, upon the 
basis of information to which your public station only gives you access. 
Perhaps you may not be exposed to this species of allurement. And if 
you should I am sure you will need no warning voice to preserve you 
from it. 

I have many very pleasing recollections of the Country, and par- 
ticularly of the spot where you reside. I inhabited the Hague, at several 
different, and always at interesting periods of my life. You will find it 
necessary to be particularly attentive to your health, as foreigners who 
reside some time in Holland are often subject to attacks of intermittent 
fevers. The Hague is however more favourably situated than Amsterdam. 

You will oblige me, by enquiring if a family bv the name of Veer- 
man, Saint Serf, now reside at the Hague ; and if they do, by calling 
upon them, with my compliments and kind remembrance. The Lady, 
is the daughter of a M r Dumas, who during the War of our Revolution 
was agent for the United States at the Hague, and after the War was for 
some time Charge d' Affaires. When I was last at the Hague, from 1794 
to 1797, she was married to this M r Veerman and had two or three 
children. I passed through the Hague last Summer on my way to Ghent, 
but could not stop even to alight from the Carriage. I have not heard 



Letters of Adams to Everett ioo 

from this family for many years ; but it would give me great pleasure to 
be informed of them, and especially of their welfare. 

M r Buchanan does me the favour to take charge of this Letter. He 
is strongly recommended to me, by several highly respected friends, and 
I am persuaded you will find in him an agreeable associate. Let me 
hear often from you, and believe me truly your's 

John Quincy Adams. 

VII. 

A. H. Everett Esq r — The Hague. 

Boston House, Ealini; — near London 31. August 1815. 
Dear Sir. 

I find upon my files a friendly and very agreeable Letter from you, 
dated Boston 28. Octf 18 14. which I received on the 24" 1 of March last 
at Paris. I did not then answer it, because I knew already of your desti- 
nation to Europe, and I can now only acknowledge the receipt of it, 
because M r Langdon, who is kind enough to take this Letter, goes im- 
mediately, and I have the receipt of two other favours from you to 
acknowledge. They are of the 3 d and 9'" instants, the former by M 
Haven, with a Copy of the new Constitution of the Netherlands, for 
which I thank you. 

Your project of occupying your leisure by a historical sketch of the 
Country where you reside, I have no doubt will prove useful to yourself 
and to others. The whole interest of the Dutch history is concentrated 
in the Period of its existence as a Republic ; which began at the sepa- 
ration of the Country from the dominion of Spain, and ended by the 
invasion of the French in 1794. There is now again an Independent 
Government — but it commences as a Monarchy, without any distinctive 
Characteristic. The Republic is no more ; and the Nation is no longer 
the same. 

Among your occupations I would recommend to you that of making 
yourself completely master of the French language — to write it, as you 
do your own. It is the diplomatic language of the whole European 
Continent, and I wish you to possess it so as never to depend upon a 
translator. This is the only Country in Europe, where the French is of 
no use to a foreign legation. 

Should I return the ensuing Spring to the United States, as is highly 
probable, it will be solely with the view of attending to my private con- 
cerns ; to see once more my aged Parents, and to devote my time to the 
education of my Children. I shall have no objects of a public Nature 
whatsoever ; and to be candid, the conclusive inducement to return 
will be the want of means to remain where I am. 

Wherever I may be, there you will have a sincere and faithful 
friend. 

John Quincy Adams. 



i o i Documents 

VIII. 

A. H. Everett Esql — The Hague. 

London 6"' Dec'!' 1815. 
Dear Sir 

Since I wrote you last, I have had the pleasure of receiving four 
Letters from you. The first of June 25'!' 1813 was presented by M r Coffin ; 
the second of 31" of July last by your elder Brother ; and the others, of 
31 s1 August and 4 of Oct''/ the receipt of which I should not have been 
so long in acknowledging, but for an inflamation of the eyes, similar to 
that with which you may remember I was once afflicted at S' Petersburg ; 
but much more severe and of much longer continuance. It has for nearly 
two months in a great measure deprived me of the use of the pen, and 
still obliges me to write by another hand. 

I am very glad that you have made the acquaintance of my friend, (if 
I was not speaking of a Lady, I should say, my very old friend) Madame 
Veerman, and her family. True it is, that 1 have many times held both 
her daughters, respectable Matrons though now they be, upon my knees : 
but that was far from being my first acquaintance with her ; I have seen her 
as fair a blossom as any of the Gardens of Harlem ever produced ; and in 
the change of Features upon her countenance, between that period, and 
the time when I found her married and the Mother of two Children, I 
have some reason for supposing that the Grandmother of this day must 
retain few traces of the Virgin bloom which more than thirty years ago 
I saw upon her face. I pray you to present my best respects to her and to 
her daughters, who I am glad to hear are married and I hope are well 
settled in life. 

1 have been much edified by the philosophical and benevolent reflec- 
tions which your visit to Bruxelles and the Inauguration or Coronation 
combined with the Field of Waterloo excited in your mind. They appear 
to me to be far preferable to the Poetical inspiration which M* Walter 
Scott found, or at least went to seek upon the aforesaid field. I have 
heard and read something before about a week at Bruxelles, and a famous 
Tree where the Hero who was then bankrupting a Nation's gratitude is 
said to have remained, though not to have reposed, during a part of the 
first day's action. The Ancient sage Philosopher in Hudibras could 
prove, you know, that the world was made of fighting and of love, and I 
cannot imagine any means so effectual for promoting your project of per- 
petual peace as an enactment of an universal law that the shelter of the 
Tree of Waterloo shall henceforth be exclusively reserved for the belle 
Alliance which was sheltered by the Tree of Nivelle. 

There was nearly a century ago a poor French Abbe named S! Pierre, 1 
who published in three Volumes a project for perpetual peace between 
the Powers of Europe which he sent to Cardinal Fleury, whose dear 
delight was Peace. The Cardinal's answer to him was " vous avez oub- 
liez Monsieur, pour Article preliminaire, de commencer par envoyer une 

'Charles Irenee Castel de Saint Pierre (1658-1743), Abbe de Tiron. His 
Projet de Paix Perpetuelle, in three volumes, was published in 1713. 



Letters of .hiatus to Everett 102 

Troupe de Missionnaires, pour disposer le coeur et l'esprit des Princes". 
This little difficulty suggested by the Cardinal still subsists; and if in the 
pursuit of your plan you should avoid committing the Abbe's error, and 
send your Troup of Missionaries there would still be the chance whether 
they might be all gifted with the power of persuasion sufficient to ensure 
their success ; besides the possibility that the Missionaries themselves 
might require a second band of pacific Apostles, to keep them faithful to 
their duty. 

But not to trifle upon so serious a subject ; Peace on Earth and good 
will to Men, was proclaimed nearly two thousand years since, by one 
with whose authority no human power is to be compared. It was not 
only proclaimed, but the means of maintaining it were fully and most 
explicitly furnished to Mankind. This authority is acknowledged, and 
its precepts are recognized as obligatory, by all those who exhibited the 
practical comment upon it in the Field of Waterloo, ft is most emphatic- 
ally acknowledged, by the most Christian personages who are yet com- 
menting upon it, in the Dungeon's of the Spanish Inquisition, and in 
the Butcheries at Nismes. 

With these results of the holy War for the preservation of social order 
and of Religion yet glaring before me, I cannot promise you very speedy 
success in the laudable purpose of eradicating the seeds of discord from 
the human heart. But if in your disappointment you stand in need of 
consolation, I recommend to your meditations the Theory of the ingen- 
ious Ml Malthus. 1 He perhaps may prove to your satisfaction that the 
real misfortune of Europe is to be overburthened with Population ; or if 
he should fail in that, he may at least convince you that the population 
of Europe is neither more nor less for such Fields as that of Waterloo. 
The number of Officers who gloriously fell upon that memorable day, 
made no chasm in the Military establishment of the Conquerors. The 
London Gazette within ten days afterwards filled up all the vacancies 
which that day had made in the British Army and M'. Malthus insists 
that it is precisely the same with the process of population : that where- 
ever one mouth is removed, another will immediately be produced to 
take its place. If this theory be just, you might perhaps find occasion 
to re-consider the project of perpetual peace even if it should be practic- 
able : for it would be necessary to take into the account, the mass of 
glory which you would deprive so many Heroes of acquiring, in exchange 
for their worthless lives, and also the immense multitudes of little candi- 
dates for existence, whom you would cruelly debar from the possibility 
of coming into life. It would be a sort of murder of the Innocents, that 
would out- Herod Herod. 

I am informed that there is in this Letter a mixture of solidity and 

1 An interesting statement in light of the fact that Everett later devoted con- 
siderable attention to the theories of Malthus. See his Europe: or a General 
Survey of the Political Situation of the Principal Powers with Conjectures on 
their Future Prospects (London and Boston, 1822) ; also New Ideas on Popula- 
tion with Remarks on the Theories of Good-win and Malthus (Boston, 1823). 



1 03 Documents 

levity which makes it proper to bring it to a conclusion. I have as yet 
no answer from the Government to the proposal which I made for an 
exchange which would give me the benefit of your assistance, but I have 
intimations from a private source, that a different arrangement has beer 
made. I shall regret the circumstance on my own account, though in 
the present condition of my Eves, it will probably lie an advantageous 
one to you. 1 wrote last Week to M r Eustis, and beg to be remembered 
kindly to him now ; being with the highest regard and esteem Dear Sir, 

y° ur friend " Juhx Quincy Adams. 

IX. 

A. H. Everett EsqT Secretary of Legation of U. S. The Hague. 

„ „. Ealing near London 16. March 1S16 

Deal' Sir. 

Since I had the pleasure of last writing you, three of your favours 
have come to my hands. The first dated u. March 1815. at Boston, 
which you had given as a Letter of recommendation to M r Cope- 
land. By some accident he left it at the New-England Coffee- House 
in London, where it remained forgotten in a drawer, with several others 
from my family-relations, from April when M r Copeland arrived in 
England, until the beginning of January, when the Master of the Cof- 
fee-house found it, and sent it to me. Your second Letter the receipt 
of which I am to acknowledge is of 13. December last, and was brought 
by M r Apthorp. The third of 21. Dec r introductory to M' Chad, who is 
to go out as Secretary of the British Legation to the L'nited States. I 
have hitherto missed of the pleasure of seeing this Gentleman, but 
hope to have it this day. 

Your Letter of 11. March 1815. principally relates to two subjects, 
now obsolete enough ; but one of which, the Victory at New Orleans, 
will always be in Season, to the memory of Americans ; and the other, 
the Peace of Ghent, will I hope prove to be likewise composed of durable 
materials. Judging, as the character of all political measures should be 
judged, from the existing Circumstances of the Time, the Peace was un- 
doubtedly seasonable, and was probably as good a one as could then 
have been obtained ; but all who like you, have devoted their lives to 
the honour and welfare of their Country, will remember that the Peace 
did not obtain the objects for which the war was waged. From which 
every mind not besotted by the Spirit of Faction, may draw two conclu- 
sions — one of caution against commencing War, without a fair prospect 
of attaining its objects, as well as a good cause. The other that the 
object of the last War, must perhaps, and not improbably be fought for 
again. In an enlarged point of View, the War was much more bene- 
ficial than injurious to our Country. It has raised our national character 
in the eyes of all Europe. It has demonstrated that the United States, 
are both a military and a naval Power, with capacities which may here- 
after place them in both these respects on the first line among the Na- 
tions of the Earth. It has given us Generals and Admirals, and subordi- 
nate officers by land and sea, to whom we may hereafter look with 



Letters of Adams to Everett 104 

confidence for the support of our national rights and interests in War, if 
the necessity should recur. It has partly removed the prejudice against 
that best and safest of National defences, an efficient Navy. And it has 
shewn us many secrets of our own strength and weakness, until then, 
not sufficiently known to ourselves, and to which it is to be hoped we 
shall not hereafter wilfully shut our eyes. But some of the worst fea- 
tures in our composition that it has disclosed are deformities which, if not 
inherent in the very nature of our Constitution, will require great, anx- 
ious and unremitting care to enable us to outgrow them. The n.cst d ■ 
gusting of them all, are the rancorous spirit of faction, which drove one 
part of the Country headlong towards the dissolution of the Union, and 
towards a treacherous and servile adherence to the Enemies of the Coun- 
try. This desertion from the standard of the Nation, weakened all its 
exertions to such a degree, that it required little less than a special inter- 
position of Providence to save us from utter disgrace, and dismember- 
ment, and although the projects of severing the Union were signally dis- 
concerted by the unexpected conclusion of the Peace, they were too 
deeply seated in the political systems as well as in the views of per- 
sonal Ambition, of the most leading men in our native State to be yet 
abandoned. They will require to be watched, exposed, and inflexibly 
resisted, probably for many years. 

You have doubtless been informed that a few days after I last wrote 
you, M* J. A. Smith arrived here, as Secretary of Legation to this Court 
and since the meeting of Congress his appointment has been confirmed 
by the Senate. Whether the Government inferred from his personal 
relation to me, that this appointment would of course be agreeable to 
me, or whether it was made upon distinct Considerations, and without 
reference to my wishes at all, I think it necessary, from what had pre- 
viously passed between you and me to state, that your name is the only 
one that I ever recommended to the Government for the Office, and that 
although I knew he had been recommended for it by others, his appoint- 
ment to it, was altogether unexpected by me, until I was informed it had 
actually taken place. 

It is natural that you should entertain some solicitude, with regard 
to your future prospects, and your idea is just that the situation of Secre- 
tary to an American Legation in Europe is no permanent Prospect for a 
condition in Life. The Government of the United States have no system 
of diplomatic gradation, and the instances of Persons who have com- 
menced as Secretaries of Legation, and afterwards received higher ap- 
pointments have been very few. But the reason of this has been, because 
most of the Secretaries have been young men, who obtained the appoint- 
ments by the influence and solicitations of their friends, and who after 
obtaining them think much more of their own pleasure than of the pub- 
lic service. They come to Europe not to toil, but to enjoy, To dangle 
about Courts, and solace themselves for the rest of their lives, with the 
delightful reflection that Kings or Princes have looked at them — to see 
sights — to frequent theatres, Balls, Masquerades and fashionable Society. 



105 Documents 

I speak not of those who have sunk into baser and more vicious pursuits. 
Nor of those who come to make themselves scientific, or virtuosi. 
Scarcely one in fifty ever came to do his duty, and nothing but his duty, 
Or to devote his leisure to the acquisition of the proper diplomatic knowl- 
edge. The habits of life into which they fall relax their industry into 
indolence and turn their activity to dissipation. They go home with 
heads as empty, and with hearts fuller of vanity than they came — gen- 
erally with a hankering to return to Europe, and almost always with a 
distaste to the manners, and institutions of their own Country. Disdain- 
ing or disqualified to take a part in its public affairs, and incapable of 
making themselves necessary, either to the General Government, or to 
any of the political parties in the Country. 

Nothing of all this applies to you. Had your station been assigned 
to the Mission here, you would have found that the mere drudgery of the 
Office would have absorbed all, and more than all your time. At the 
Hague you have much leisure, and I am quite sure you are making good 
use of it. You will never for an instant forget that you are responsible 
to your country for the employment of every hour. That every moment 
not devoted to the discharge of present duty, must be given to the 
acquisition of future capability. You will never adopt the fancy of the 
School-boy, who left School and went home, because he had learnt out. 
But as you have asked my advice, I cannot in candour recommend it to 
you, to remain long in your present station under the idea that it will 
lead to something better. After a suitable period, properly employed, I 
should say, return home, and resume your station at the Bar. Take an 
interest and exercise an influence in the public affairs. You must steel 
your heart, and prepare your mind to encounter multitudes of political 
enemies, and to endure all the buffetings, without which there is no 
rising to distinction in the American world. When the knaves and fools 
open upon you, in full pack, take little or no notice of them, and be 
careful not to lose your temper. Preserve your private character and 
reputation unsullied, and confine your speculations upon public concerns 
to objects of high and national importance. You will certainly be 
favoured with no Patronage, political or professional by the prevailing 
party at Boston, but you must make your way in opposition to and in 
defiance of them. Their system is rotten to the core, and you may ren- 
der essential service to the Nation, by persevering exertions against it. 
I will give you one word, which you may lay down as the foundation of 
the whole political system, to which you may boldly and safely devote 
from this moment all the energies of your character, all your talents and 
all your Genius — that word is Union. Let that be the centre, from 
which all your future exertions emanate, and to which all your motives 
tend — let your conduct be at once bold, resolute, and wary — preserve 
inflexibly your personal independence, even while acting in concurrence 
with any party, and take my word for it, you will not need to go in 
search of public-Office, at home or abroad. For Public-Office, at home 
or abroad, at your option will soon come in search of you. 



Letters of Adams to Everett 106 

Be good enough to present my best remembrance to M r Eustis, to 
whom I am yet indebted for a letter, and propose shortly to write. M r 
Apthorp did not bring Turreau's book upon America. 1 That illustrious 
Vendean General told me last Spring that he intended to publish a Book 
against us. I did not think the worse of him or of ourselves for that. 
Laudari a laudato has a counterpart, which will easily reconcile me to his 
vituperation. 

Our accounts from the United States, do not appear propitious to 
your projects of perpetual Peace. Onis the Spaniard, 2 they say, has 
sprung a mine at Washington and gone off. But I have not room to 
expatiate, and must remain ever faithfully yours. 

John Quincy Adams 

X. 

A. H. Everett Esqf Boston. 

Washington 28. Sept r 1817. 3 
Dear Sir. 

During the few days that I passed at Boston, I called several times 
both at your house and at your Office, for the purpose of having some 
conversation with you as well upon the subjects referred to in your Letter 
of the 23 d inst! which I received yesterday, as upon some others. My 
lust visits were on the day before I left Boston to come here, when I 
found at your Office door a notice that you was out of town, and was in- 
formed at your house that you and your Lady were gone upon an ex- 
cursion to Portsmouth. I seriously regretted the Circumstance, as I was 
desirous of communicating with you more fully and more confidentially, 
than either my time, or some other considerations will admit of in writing. 
This however is now the only remaining expedient of intercourse between 
us, and I take the hour before the dawn of the day of rest, for the 
purpose. 

I arrived here on Saturday the 20'." inst' and saw the President the 
same evening. He was obliged to leave the City again on Monday 
Morning for his Seat in Virginia, and the only conversation that I had 
with him was upon objects concerning which he had instructions to leave 
with me. Upon his return I will not fail to mention your Letter to him, 
and ascertain if he received it. 

If you will transmit to me your accounts with the United States, 
with the vouchers if there are any, I will deliver them over to the Audi- 
tor for the Department of State, and attend to their being passed through 
the various offices for settlement. 

1 Apergu sur la Situation Politique des Etats-Unis d'Amcriquc. par le General 
Turreau, ancien ministre plenipotentiaire de France aux Etats-Unis d'Amerique 
(Paris, 1815). 

- Don Luis de Onis, minister from Spain. The allusion is probably to his 
efforts to bring about the prosecution of persons threatening the Spanish posses- 
sions. American State Papers, For. Rel.. IV. 422. 

3 Mr. Adams had now become Secretary of State in the cabinet of President 
Monroe. 



loy Documents 

With regard to your return to the diplomatic career, I consider the 
prospet t of your services to the public in that line, as so favourable, that 
I shall not hesitate to recommend you to the President for employment, if 
any situation should present itself, in the class of those which would be 
acceptable to you. 

From the Correspondence of M r Eustis,' it appears to be his in- 
tention to return next Spring, to the United States ; unless in the mean- 
time, a .Minister of rank corresponding to his, should be appointed by 
the King of the Netherlands to reside here. Should he return, a Charge 
d'Affaires will I presume be appointed to reside at that Court, and as the 
President in anticipation of such an Event had already offered you the 
situation, I suppose, and so far as I may expect to be consulted in the 
selection, intend that it shall be offered to you again. I am not inclined 
without a clear and obvious propriety to multiply the diplomatic agents 
of the United States in Europe, and probably the next Congress will 
be as little disposed as I am to aggravate unnecessarily the public ex- 
pellees in that department. But before I left England I was informed 
that the King of Prussia had appointed a Charge d'Affaires to the United 
States, and I was led to expect that he would before now have arrived in 
this Country. Should such an event take place, the appointmei t of a 
peison with the same character may be judged advisable, and may per- 
haps meet the sanction of Congress. In that case, or in any other that 
may occur of a similar nature, in which I can with propriety present 
your name to the President, you may be assured 1 shall be neither back- 
ward nor cold in recommending you. 

I have read all the numbers upon the present State of England, that 
have been published since I landed at New-York, 2 and am sure I shall 
take great pleasure in reading the remainder. That they have been 
received by the public with more attention than they deserve is by no 
means my opinion. That they should have been ascribed to me would 
have been one of the highest compliments that could have been paid me, 
if I could have recognized as mine, many of their sentiments. But the 
argument against the theory of the checks and balances, would scarcely 
have been decent from my pen, if I had even been convinced of its cor- 
rectness, which I am not. It would have been inconsistent too with the 
opinions which I have always avowed ; and particularly with a series of 
papers which in the year 1791. I published in the Boston Centinel, 
under the signature of Publico!,!. They encountered instead of flattering 
the prevailing prejudices of the time, and were very unpopular. They 
are now and have been long since forgotten by the Public, but I am not 
conscious of having changed any important opinion contained in them. 

'William Eustis, 1753-1825, member of Congress 1S01-1805 and 1820-1823; 
Secretary of War 1807-1813 : minister to Holland 1S14-1818; governor of Mass.i 
chusetts 1823-1825. 

■' " Letters to a Friend on the Present State of England." published in the 
Patriot <:i;, I Chronicle ami reprinted in the Boston Weekly Messenger beginning 
June 17, 1817, and some of them at least in the Boston Daily Advertiser begin- 
ning June 17. 



Letters of Adams to Everett 108 

Their view of the British Constitution is altogether different from yours, 
and although I do ample Justice to the ingenuity of your argument 
against Montesquieu, I have not been convinced by it. I cannot com- 
press into this short Letter an argument that would exhaust a volume, 
and probably leave you on your side " of your own opinion still," but 
to deal with you in perfect candour, your view of the British Consti- 
tution, of its operation, and I might perhaps add of the present State of 
England, is not impartial. If you and Walsh 1 were Painters and had to 
take the Portrait of a one-eyed man, you would both paint him in pro- 
file but your picture would shew the blind and his the seeing side. He 
would conceal the loss of the eye, and you would represent the man as 
blind. You know it is a trite maxim in natural philosophy that a mathe- 
matical truth is a physical falsehood. The practice of no machine ever 
corresponds precisely with its theory. What would you say to an 
Englishman who should aver that the Constitutions of the United States 
are all impostures, and that we have nothing but a Government of Cau- 
cuses? These are Engines unknown to our Constitutions and Laws, but 
not less operative upon the Administration of our Governments than 
what Cobbett calls the borough-mongering faction is upon that of Eng- 
land. As to the general state and condition of the Country, I must say 
that no Country or People that I have ever visited, present more solid, 
more numerous or more noble topics for panegyric than England. That 
she presents at the same time numerous topics for the severest and most 
indignant reprobation is equally true. Your papers are admirably calcu- 
lated to eradicate from the minds of our Countrymen, every prejudice in 
her favour. To do her entire Justice would require another series of 
Essays, an eye more upon the search for the forms and a hand more 
ready for the delineation of beauty. The eye and the hand are your 
own; and why should the disposition be wanting? You have a heart, 
not insensible to beauty, physical, moral or intellectual — why should 
you hide its feelings from itself? You know that the Agriculture of Eng- 
land is superior to that of any other Country — That in most of the use- 
ful, and some of the ornamental Arts, she is surpassed by none — That 
her learning, literature and Science equal if they do not exceed those of 
any other Nation — That in arms she stands at least upon a level with 
the first military Nations of the age by land, and that she reigns but too 
triumphant and unrivalled upon the Ocean. Is all this the result of des- 
picable or pernicious institutions? If England had no other claim to 
reverence than that of having founded the Colonies, which are now your 
Country and mine, her solid and unquestionable glory would transcend 
all Greek, transcend all Roman fame. France, Spain, Portugal, and 
Holland, have founded Colonies as well as England ; — look at them, 

'Robert Walsh, 1784-1S59, wrote A Letter on the Genius and Disposition 
of the French Government, including a View of the Taxation of the French 
Empire (1810, several editions). Its tone was favorable to England. His best 
known work is An Appeal from the Judgments of Great Britain respecting the 
United States of America (Philadelphia, 1819). 



1 09 Documents 

and look at the United States. And what is the cause of the difference 
between them ? English Institutions, Principles and Manners. Milton 
tells us that the very Spirits reprobate lose not all their virtue, and has 
accordingly endowed his fallen Angels, with virtues of the highest order. 
He has given the Devil his due, and I think you should do the same with 
England. 

I believe there is a little account between you and me to settle, for 
the two years that you was in my Office, before our departure for Europe. 
1 mention it now, not for the sake of asking you for the settlement, for 
that shall he entirely at your convenience, but because never having been 
adjusted it may perhaps have escaped your recollection. 

With my best Respects for your Lady, and the highest esteem and 
regard for yourself, I remain, dear Sir, ever faithfully yours 

J. Q. Adams. 
XL 
Alex' H. Everett Esq' Boston 

Washington 23. Nov' 181 7. 
Dear Sir. 

I congratulate you very cordially upon your success at the Election. 
I certainly know not a man in our district more calculated to represent it 
with dignity to the Nation with honour to himself, and with advantage 
to his Constituents than M' Mason. 1 I am also highly gratified with the 
moderation, the conciliatory Spirit, and the good management, which 
the republican party at Boston have so remarkably manifested on this 
occasion, and am not a little amused with the anti climax of address and 
temper with which the Wise Men of the East, have contrived to put 
themselves in a minority, at a place where they have for several years 
had majorities of two to one, for whatever and whomsoever they pleased. 
It has given me great pleasure to see the influence of your personal exer- 
tions in this affair, and I had already recognized your hand in the two 
pieces in the Patriot, and Chronicle before you sent them to me. The 
Editors of that paper have not many such Correspondents, and ought to 
be sensible of it. The decorum and moderation, the recurrence to sound 
principles and at the same time to popular topics of persuasion, in the 
neat, and easy Style, so well suited to the temper of the times, and to 
Newspaper discussion, are not very common in the " five hundred daily 
Newspapers" that our good-natured Countrymen are content to read. 
The view of parties has already been transplanted at least into one other 
Newspaper. A distinction rare indeed for political speculations written 
merely to bear upon a local election. It is succinct, in the main just, 
and peculiarly suited to produce the proper impression at the time. A 
Federalist might perhaps insist that with all the extravagances, and in- 
tolerances, and absurdities, and almost Treasons of his party, they have 
nevertheless rendered the most important and durable services to the 
Common Country — That if at one period they drove headlong to the 

'Jonathan Mason, 1750-1831. He had held public office on previous occa- 
sions. He served as Federalist Representative from Boston, 1817-1820. 



Letters of Adams to Everett i i o 

dissolution of the Union, they saved it from the assaults of their opponents 
at another — That the Constitution of the United States, is peculiarly 
their's — That the Navy and its glories, are in a peculiar sense their's, 
and that if in the late Stages of the French Revolution, the horror of its 
excesses, and the terror of its gigantic despotism drove them into a de- 
lirium of subserviency to England, the delirium of their antagonists in 
favour of that same Revolution in its earlier stages, was equally extrava- 
gant, and of a tendency not less pernicious. A faithful and impartial, 
and philosophical history of our Parties, from the formation of our Union 
would be a most valuable and instructive work, and the time is now come 
when it might be written without danger to the author. Carey's Olive 
Branch 1 is an imperfect attempt at such a work, and is already at its 
tenth Edition. But one great defect of that Book, is that Carey, born 
an Irishman, has always been himself in this Country a violent partizan of 
the democratic party, and that all his acknowledgments of faults on that 
side are apologies ; while all his enumerations of faults on the other side 
are charges. The essential Spirit of all confession is palliative ; that of 
all accusation is aggravating. Carey's book would be a proof of this, if 
it were not in proof from almost every thing else. And as to philo- 
sophical speculation, reference to the general principles of human Nature, 
or comparison with the operations of party in other free Nations, or de- 
lineations of individual characters, no such thing is to be found in the 
book. It is an old joke that a good historian ought to have neither 
religion nor Country ; but it is hardly to be expected that an impartial 
history of a struggle between two parties should be written by an actor in 
one of them. 

I regret very much not having seen the printed vote of the Central 
Committee to which you allude; but alter the secession of two such 
members as Gen 1 Welles and Major Russell, I can scarcely conceive the 
blindness of the rest in pushing their Candidate against M r Mason. This 
however appears to me clear — That it has broken their line, and if the 
republicans continue their party management in the same Spirit, they 
cannot fail to have the very next year the Majority in both branches of 
the Legislature ; the selection of the Council ; and with regard to the 
town of Boston, from henceforth the full weight to which they are enti- 
tled by their numbers, and by the respectability of character of those 
whom they recognize as their leaders. 

I should think the second of the two plans, suggested by you as likely 
to be adopted at the next Spring Elections, as in every point of view the 
best ; and particularly since this election of M r Mason to Congress. First 
because I trust he will be a very weighty and influential member of the 
House of Representatives, and should exceedingly regret the loss of his Ser- 
vices there so soon. I have understood that M r Brooks'- serves with 
some reluctance in the Office of Governor, and would probably not chuse 

1 The Olive Branch, by Mathew Carey, a well-known book (1814 and many 
later editions). 

2 John Brooks, 1 752-1825, governor 1816-1823. 



i i i Documents 

to continue in service long. He could have no better successor than M r 
Mason, whose service in the meantime in Congress will I trust be as use- 
ful even to the State as it would be in the Governor's (.'hair. Secondly, 
I doubt whether the Republicans could split hairs of principle with suffi- 
cient accuracy to find a distinction, upon which they could justify them- 
selves in turning out M r Brooks, to put M' Mason in his place. If during 
the late War, M' Brooks, was in some degree implicated in the miscon- 
duct of the Massachusetts State Government, by his official Situation, his 
Sentiments were undoubtedly the same as those of M' Mason. His situ- 
ation may have prevented him from expressing them so freely ; but what 
censure upon the policy of his predecessor could have been stronger, or 
more keenly felt, than his Silence, concerning it, and the totally different 
policy that he announced in his first Speech to the Legislature. Nor can 
I forget that in that very war, he had a son, who died in the Cause of the 
Country. Thirdly, I think you would still fail in carrying the Election 
against Brooks. By adopting him they the Republicans would make 
another and most effectual step towards conciliation, and harmony ; and 
could scarcely fail to carry a majority into both branches of the Legisla- 
ture. I can scarcely imagine how this should be more difficult to accom- 
plish throughout the State ; than it would be for the Republicans to set 
up another federalist, merely for the sake of displacing Brooks. 

Enough upon a subject which as you observe is out of my Sphere. 
From a Conversation that I have had with the President, I am apprehen- 
sive that when Ebeling's Library comes, I shall have it left upon my 
hands.' I should be glad of this if I could afford either the prime cost 
of it, or a place where it could be safely kept, till I shall have leisure to 
make suitable use of it myself. But as my means are not adequate to 
this, I expect to be under the necessity of disposing of the Books or of 
the greatest part of them, upon the best terms that I can obtain. My 
determination to purchase them was founded upon the Confidence that I 
reposed in your brother's judgment, and a feeling of shame that such a 
Collection, so peculiarly interesting to this Country, in a National point 
of view, should be lost to it, and scattered over Europe for the want 
of a few thousand Dollars. But the President is of opinion that 150 
Volumes would comprize all the books relating to America, worth having 
in the Library of Congress, and probabh - three fourths of them are 
already there. My deference to his judgment has very much staggered 
my Confidence in my own, and a little damped the sanguine temper with 
which I had entered into yours and your brother's feelings. I will yet 
however not countermand the order which I authorized you to give him 
for the purchase, but must request you in writing to him, to enjoin upon 
him, not upon any consideration to exceed the limits which I prescribed 
in regard to the cost, either by any addition to the sum, or by any deduc- 
tion from the books. I shall find it hard enough to carry the thing 
through, as I have undertaken it, but I am still bent upon securing the 
whole collection to ourselves. Ask your brother also to have the good- 

1 See post, pp 1 1 4-1 1 5. 



Letters of Adams to Everett 1 i 2 

ness to forward to me as soon as possible, a Catalogue of the Library. I 
would write to him, but am uncertain where he now is. Can you inform 
me? I understood it was his intention to pass the next, or rather the 
present Winter, in England. 
I am ever faithfully your's 

John Quincy Adams 

P. S. I give you joy of the opponent that your Letters upon Eng- 
land have found — Such an antagonist is worth ten panegyrics. 1 

P. S. 2. Nov' 25. I have received your Letter of the 20"' which 
was already answered by mine of the i6'. h M' Eustis has got a Secretary, 
and if there should be any mission to Prussia it will not be sooner than 
next Summer, and then — how many Candidates' 

XII. 

Alex' H. Everett. Esq'' — Boston 

Washington 29. December 1S17. 
Dear Sir. 

Your Letter of the i6! h has been a full week upon my unanswered 
file, and I am now obliged to answer it very imperfectly. The News- 
papers mention that M' Eustis has gone to pass the Winter at Paris, and 
has left M 1 Appleton as Charge d' Affaires at the Hague. I suppose this 
is true though we have no notice of it. My last Letter from M r Eustis, is 
of 4. October, from the Hague, and its symptoms instead of indicating 
an intention of speedy departure, rather disclose a willingness to be 
detained even beyond the period of the ensuing Spring. No necessity 
for any such detention is supposed here to be likely to arise ; but if cir- 
cumstances should occur to render the homeward voyage inconvenient 
next Spring, it may perhaps be postponed for another year. I have no 
particular reason for this surmize, other than that Gentlemen abroad who 
have projects of returning home do not like to be hurried. 

I have not seen the Article upon Peace Societies in the North 
American Review ; nor the Review itself.'' But if our Peace Societies 
should fall into the fashion of corresponding upon the Objects of their 
Institution with foreign Emperors and Kings, they may at some future 
day find themselves under the necessity of corresponding with Attorney 
Generals and Grand and Petit Juries at home. Philip of Macedon 

'Answers to Everett's articles appeared in the Boston Daily Advertiser. 
They were reprinted in the Boston Weekly Messenger beginning November 20. 
1S17. 

' An article by Everett in the North American Review, VI. 25, is a review of 
The Friend of Peace, Nos. i-S, by Philo Pacificus, one of a series of publications 
issued by a member of the Peace Society of Massachusetts. That Everett's early 
inclination to the acceptance and promulgation of peace plans and theories con- 
tinued in later life may be judged from the article. " What can be more thoroughly 
and essentially chimerical, absurd, "and ridiculous, than the pretence of settling a 
disputed boundary, or a doubtful passage in Grotius by arranging fifty or a hundred 
thousand men in two opposing lines, and compelling them to shoot each other 
down?" N. Am. Rev., VI. 44. 



i i 3 Documents 

was in very active correspondence with a Peace Society at Athens; 
and with their co-operation baffled and overpowered all the Eloquence of 
Demosthenes. Alexander of the Neva, is not so near nor so dangerous 
a neighbour to us, as Philip was to the Athenians, but I am afraid his 
love of Peace is of the same character as was that of the Man of Macedon. 
Absolute Princes, who can dispose of large masses of human force, must 
naturally in applying them, be aided by all the pacific dispositions that 
they can find or make among those whom they visit with the exercise of 
their power. In the intercourse between Portier and Weakness, Peace, in 
the language of the former, means the submission of the latter to its will. 
While Alexander, and his Minister of Religious Worship, Prince Galitzin, 
are corresponding with the Rev' 1 Noah Worcester, 1 upon the blessedness 
of Peace, the venerable founder of the Holy League is sending five or six 
ships of the line, and several thousand promoters of peace armed with 
bayonets to Cadi/., and thence to propagate good will to man elsewhere 
— whether at Algiers, at Constantinople, or at Buenos Ayres we shall be 
informed hereafter. 

The mention of Buenos-Ayres, brings to my mind an Article that I 
have lately seen in the Boston Patriot, and which I concluded was from 
your pen. Its tendency was to shew the inexpediency and injustit e 
there would be in our taking side with the South-Americans in their pres- 
ent struggle against Spain. It was an excellent Article, and I should be 
glad to see the same train of thought further pursued. As for example 
by a discussion of the question in political morality by what right we 
could take side? and who, in this case of a civil War, has constituted us 
the judges, which of the parties has the righteous Cause? then by an 
enquiry, what the Cause of the South-Americans is, and whether it really 
be as their partisans here alledge, the same as our own Cause, in the war 
of our Revolution? Whether for instance if Buenos-Ayres, has formally 
offered to accept the Infant Don Carlos as their absolute Monarch, upon 
condition of being politically Independent of Spain, their cause is the 
same as ours was? Whether, if Bolivar, being at the head of the Re- 
public of Venezuela, has solemnly proclaimed the absolute and total 
emancipation of the slaves, the cause of Venezuela is precisely the same 
as ours was? Whether in short there is any other feature of identity 
between their Cause and ours, than that they are as we were Colonies 
fighting for Independence. In our Revolution there were two distinct 
Stages, in the first of which we contended for our civil rights, and in the 
second for our political Independence. The second as we solemnly de- 
clared to the world was imposed upon us as a necessity, after every prac- 
ticable effort had been made in vain to secure the first. In South-Amer- 
ica, Civil Rights, if not entirely out of the question, appear to have 
been equally disregarded and trampled upon by all parties. Bunos 
Ayres has no Constitution ; and its present ruling powers are established 

1 Xoah Worcester, 1758-1837, secretary of the Peace Society 1816-1828, is 
credited not only with editing but with writing most of the Friend of Peace, issued 
periodically, 1815-1818. 

AM. HIST. REV., VOL. XI. — 8. 



Letters of Adams to Everett 1 14 

only by the arbitrary banishment of their predecessors. Venezuela 
though it has emancipated all its slaves, has been constantly alternating 
between an absolute Military Government, a Capitulation to Spanish 
Authority, and Guerillas black and white, of which every petty chief has 
acted for purposes of War and Rapine as an Independent Sovereign. 
There is finally in South-America neither unity of cause, nor unity of 
effort as there was in our Revolution. Neither was our Revolution dis- 
graced by that buccaneering and piratical Spirit which has lately appeared 
among the South-Americans, not of their own growth, but I am sorry to 
say, chiefly from the contamination of their intercourse with us. Their 
privateers have been for the most part fitted out and officered in our 
Ports, and manned from the sweepings of our Streets. It was more 
effectually to organize and promote this patriotic system, that the expe- 
ditions to Galveston and Amelia-Island were carried into effect, and that 
successive gangs of desperadoes Scotch, French, Creoles, and North- 
Americans, have been constituting the Republic of the Florida's. Yet 
such is the propensity of our people to sympathize with the South-Amer- 
icans, that no feeble exertion is now making to rouse a party in this 
Country against the Government of the Union, and against the Presi- 
dent for having issued orders to put down this Nest of freebooters at 
our doors. 

Your preparations for the next Spring Elections in Massachusetts, 
appear to be judicious, and I hope they will be successful. I neither see 
or hear anything more of the Brighter Yiews, nor of Old North than 
what you tell me ; and there is at present not much to be apprehended 
from the authors of either of them. 

We have the prospect of a troublesome Indian War in the South ; 
and its bearings upon our political affairs may be more extensive and 
important than is expected. 

I am, Dear Sir, very sincerely your's 

John Quincy Adams. 

XIII. 

A. H. Everett Esqf — Boston 

Washington 6. April 181S. 
Dear Sir. 

I have received your Letter, enclosing the draft upon Baltimore for 
900 dollars, which when received shall be applied conformably to your 
desire. I have also your favour of 31. tilt'?. A Letter from your brother, 
of 23 January at Paris has informed me, that while he was in treaty for 
the purchase of the Ebeling library for me, with a prospect of obtaining 
it, though the price demanded for the whole was something beyond the 
sum that I had limited, he received another order, to purchase it for 
Harvard University, without limitation of price. He therefore justly 
considered mine as superseded ; as the only object which I could pro- 
pose to myself was that the possession of the treasures, to this Country 
should at all Events be secured ; while my limited means would neither 
admit of my keeping them myself, nor of my making a donation of them 



1 1 5 Documents 

to one of our Public Institutions. I rejoice that another person has 
undertaken to carry into effect, that which I could only have partially 
accomplished ; and most especially that our dear Alma Mater will re- 
ceive the precious deposit.' 

A joint Resolution of the two Houses of Congress has passed for ad- 
journing on the 20 ? of this Month : and they are to meet again on the 
first Monday of November. The present Session will stand remarkable 
in the Annals of our Union, for shewing how a Legislature can keep 
itself employed, when having nothing to do. It has been a Session of 
breaking ground; more distinguished as a seed-time than as a Harvest. 
The proposed appropriation for a Minister to Buenos Ayres, has gone the 
way of other things lost upon Earth — like the purchase of Oil, for 
Lighthouses in the Western Country. 

From the Moment that the Massachusetts Republicans resolved to be 
in a minority upon the choice of Governor, there could be no hope of 
an effective Coalition for the choice of Senators. The complexion of the 
Legislature for the ensuing year, is of more importance to the interests 
of the Commonwealth, than to those of the Union. Perhaps at the end 
of the next political year , as it is the fashion in this Country to call it, 
the disposition of parties will be more favourable to harmony and good 
feelings than it is now. 

M 1 ' Eustis by the last accounts we had from him was at Marseilles. 
His health much improved. He was to return to the Hague in March, 
and to embark upon his return home in April or May. 
Very faithfully yours 

John Quincy Adams. 

XIV. 
A. H. Everett Esq' Boston. 

Washington 22. June 1S1S. 
Dear Sir. 

When I advised you never to solicit a public office for yourself, I 
did not mean to preclude you from the exercise of your influence in 
favour of your friends. It would have given me pleasure if your brother 
could have received one of the two new Appointments of Appraizers of 
goods at Boston ; and your Letter recommending him was laid before the 
President. But the appointments were regularly made through the 
channel of the Treasury Department, and the choices had been fixed 
upon before your Letter was received. 

My advice to you was founded upon the opinion that your talents 
and services would of themselves operate as a sufficient recommendation 
of you, for any office which may be a worthy object of your ambition. 

l " In 1818 Colonel Israel Thorndike, of Boston, bought for $6,500 the Amer- 
ican library of Professor Ebeling, of Germany, estimated to contain over thirty- 
two hundred volumes, besides an extraordinary collection of ten thousand maps. 
The library was given by the purchaser to Harvard College, and its possession at 
once put the library of that institution at the head of all libraries in the United 
States for the illustration of American history." Winsor, Narrative and Critical 
History, I. iii. 



Letters of Adams to Everett i 1 6 

When you re-enter the diplomatic career, the opportunity of rendering 
useful service, will be in your hands. Its judicious improveme t will be 
the best of recommendations. 

M r Eustis was expected at the Hague on the 15"' of April, and was 
to embark shortly afterwards for the United States. His arrival may 
now be daily expected. I have received a Letter from him, giving the 
explanations which I had requested of the passages in former Letters of 
his relating to you, of which you have had notice. They are entirely 
satisfactory, and honourable to you. It is of course very desirable that 
if you should meet him on his return home, you should not in any man- 
ner give him to understand that you have had notice of his remarks 
concerning you, which have given you uneasiness. They were on his 
part quite confidential, and as now appears, written without any un- 
friendly disposition or intention towards you. It was proper on the 
prospect of your re-appointment to an important public trust that their 
full import should be unequivocally ascertained, as they have been to the 
complete justification of your character. 

M r Campbell l is to proceed in the course of a few days to Boston, to 
embark in the frigate Guerriere, for Russia. But the President does not 
think proper to make the appointment of a Charge d' Affairs to the 
Netherlands until after the arrival of M r Eustis in this Country, and it is 
probable that the frigate will go, not through the channel, but North 
about. 

Since beginning this Letter. I have received one from M" Eustis, 
dated, at the Hague 21. April. He was making preparations for his 
deparure, ad still expected to embark, about the beginning of May. 
I remain, very faithfully your's 

John Quincy Adams. 

XV. 

A. H. Everett. Esq r Boston. 

Washington 4. Aug' 181S. 
Dear Sir. 

I shall in the course of a few days send you a Commission and 
Instructions as Charge d'Affaires to the Netherlands. I give you this 
notice that you may be making your preparations for departure without 
delay. Your Salary will commence from the time of your leaving home 
to proceed on the Mission. For the whole or any part of the outfit you 
may draw immediately on the Department of State. Go as directly as 
possible to the place of your destination, and be very cautious not to 
absent yourself from it without permission, or unless upon motives of 
Public Service. And for the last time let me intreat you to observe the 
most rigorous punctuality with regard to your Accounts. 

Faithfully yours 

John Quincy Adams. 

(To be continued.) 
"George W. Campbell, of Tennessee, envoy to Russia 1818-1821. 



[Reprinted from The American Historical Review, Vol. XI., No. 2, January, iyo6.] 



2. Letters of John Oiiincy Adams to Alexander Hamilton 
Everett, 1811-183J 

(Second Installment.) 1 

XVI. 
(Private and Confidential) 
A. H. Everett Esqi New- York 

Washington 28. May 1825 8 
My dear Sir. 

Accept my thanks for your Letter of the I2 lh inst 1 and for its en- 
closure. I had not the least uneasiness that the latter should remain 

7 For the letters of 1811-1818, I.-XV., see the preceding number of the 
Review, XI. 8S-116. 

8 Among President Adams's first nominations had been that of A. H. Everett 
as minister to Spain. 



Letters of Adams to Everett t,2>Z 

in possession of your brother ; but it was too full of egotism, for me to 
be willing that it should fall into unfriendly hands. I am also much 
gratified with the scraps of newspapers, containing some of your publi- 
cations the last Autumn. 

If the failure of the Union ticket at the late Boston election, 1 is to 
be regretted, it is not to be wondered at, considering the manner in which 
it was composed. " Nullum Numen Adest, ni sit Prudentia." 

It is customary for Ministers Plenipotentiary, on delivering their 
Credential Letters into the hands of the Sovereign to whom they are 
directed, to address him in a short speech ; more or less formal, accord- 
ing to the dispositions of the Speaker and Hearer. With this custom 
you will do well to conform. The Address is complimentary, and 
adapted to the time and circumstances of its delivery. One or two in- 
stances have occurred here during the late Administration of Ministers 
who read their Addresses from written papers but this is not a general 
usage, nor as I ever heard the practice at the Spanish Court. The Min- 
ister reports to his Government the substance, and sometimes the words 
of his Address — and also the purport of the Answer, which he receives 
to it. 

I enclose a Letter for M r Brown, at Paris. 2 He will shew you a 
copy of a recent Instruction to M r Middleton, 3 relating to the Affairs 
of Spain and South-America. I pray you to write me freely and con- 
fidentially as often as you shall find it convenient and agreeable. My 
best wishes will follow you, for the success of your Mission, and for 
your personal comfort and welfare. 

Yours affectionately J. Q. Adams. 

XVII. 

Alexander H. Everett Esq r Boston 

Washington 15. April 1830. 
Dear Sir. 

I received a few weeks since, and have read with great satisfaction 
your pamphlet upon the British Opinions on the protecting system 1 ; 
which are indeed the opinions of many among ourselves. I had read 
those wise lucubrations of the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviewers, 6 
which you have so effectually discussed, and had remarked the tone of 
dogmatism and the visage of Wisdom with which the Sophist of Dun 

1 The election of representatives from Boston to the Massachusetts legislature, 
May 10, had resulted in the choice of twenty regular Federalists, and in the 
defeat of a " union ticket " prepared by the Republicans and such Federalists 
as would join with them. 

2 James Brown of Louisiana, minister to France 1823 to 1829. 

3 Henry Middleton of South Carolina, minister to Russia 1820 to 1830. 

* British Opinions upon the Protective System (Boston, 1830); reprinted 
from the North American Review, XXX. 160. 

5 " The American Tariff," Edinburgh Review, December, 1828; "Commerce 
of the United States and West Indies." Quarterly Review, January, 1829. 



354 Documents 

Edin dealt out his ignorance and absurdity. But the exposure of them 
in your Article surpasses my expectation. Your brother informs me 
that the author of the Edinburgh Article is a Lecturer upon Political 
Economy. ' I take it for granted he will see either the Article in the 
North American, or your pamphlet, and that we shall hear from him 
again on the subject. Handled as he has been it is scarcely possible 
that he should reply without falling into a passion — and then he will 
make an auditory to witness his discomfiture. 

You quote in a note, a paragraph in my last Message to Congress, 2 
with a question of its correctness. My position was not intended as you 
conjecture, for particular or local application; and was disconnected 
entirely from any reference to Navigation. I believe the difference 
between us must be found in the definition of the words value and equiv- 
alents. You are so much deeper in the theories of political economy 
than I have been, that I distrust my own judgment, and suspect I may 
have uttered an error, where I should rather have expected to be 
charged with having propounded a truism. 

During the twelve years which succeeded my last return from Eu- 
rope, my time was so totally absorbed in official Studies and duties that 
I had none left for devotion to general Literature ; nor even to pursue 
the progress of the Science of Political Economy. After reading your 
controversy with Malthus, 3 I had set him aside, as very doubtful author- 
ity ; and although I had for several years Ricardo's book upon my shelf, 
I never found a moment to look into it, nor even into that of our Coun- 
tryman M r Raymond. Neither of these Books is now within my reach 
— nor Say, nor my friend Count De Stutt Tracy ; and my utter inability 
to follow the course of the renowned Periodicals, till within the last 
four Months has left me so to seek on this momentous subject that I 
knew nothing even of Malthus's Definitions, 4 till I perceived in this 
new Article of your's that there was such a book, and that it had been 
reviewed by you. in the North-American. I then hunted up the North 
American for last April, 5 and there to be sure I find much discussion 
upon the value of value, and some disagreement between you and M r 
Malthus about it. I discover moreover that there is a book in sundry 
Chapters, called " a Critical Dissertation upon Value " 6 which, if I should 
ever get a sight of it, I hope will not perform the office of that antient 
Judge in the Paradise Lost who " by decision more embroils the fray ". 
My meaning of the word Value was much nearer the surface. 

i J. R. M'Culloch. 

2 A paragraph affirming it to be " a general law of prosperous commerce, that 
the real value of exports should by a small, and only a small, balance exceed that of 
imports, that balance being a permanent addition to the wealth of the nation." 
See North American Review, XXX. 198. 

3 A. H. Everett, New Ideas on Population, with Remarks on the Theories 
of Malthus and Godwin (Boston, 1823, 1826). 

'Definitions in Political Economy (London, 1827). 

5 " Political Economy," North American Review, XXVIII. 368. 

6 [Samuel Bailey], A Critical Dissertation on the Nature, Measures and 
Causes of Value (London, 1825). 



Letters of Adams to Everett 335 

I take this occasion to assure you of the pleasure with which I learnt 
that you had taken the North American into your own hand-;. I thought 
it was falling into bad management, especially upon certain topics of 
our revolutionary history and of present domestic policy. I do not 
flatter myself that I shall be able to concur in all the doctrines political, 
metaphysical or poetical, which will mark the future career of this mis- 
cellany; but I shall be relieved from the apprehension that it will become 
the medium for the circulation of time-serving morality or perverted 
history. 1 

Your brother mentioned to me, that you had applied to him for an 
Article for the July number of the Review, upon the Tape-worm debate 
in the Senate of the United States, which is voiding all the sense and 
nonsense, all the wit and dulness, all the Patriotism and Scoundrelism 
of that body, with its commingled fragrance and fetidity to salute the 
nostrils of the Nation, and he asked me to undertake this service in his 
stead. I desired him to excuse me 2 ; first from a doubt whether the 
whole worm would ever be evacuated, Secondly from a probability that 
its parcels will be still appearing at least during all the present Session 
of Congress, but thirdly and chiefly because I believed such an Article 
as I should write, would not suit your views, nor perhaps the temporal 
Interests of the Review itself. If I should write the Article it would 
be too bold for the temper of the Times, and would adapt itself to no 
one of the political parties militant. It would deal with them all more 
in truth than, in policy, and would mask neither the Virginia and Ken- 
tucky Resolutions of 1798 and 1799, nor the Hartford Convention Reso- 
lutions of 1815. Nor the Colleton'" 1 and Edgefie[l]d Resolutions of 1829.* 
They are all Chips of the same Block, and there is no great political 
party in this Country but at some time or other has made to itself a 
God, of this " inutile lignum ". 

I know not whether your brother or you will even think it advisable 
fully to expose the mutual surrender of the Public Lands to the West, 
and of the American System to the South, both at the expense of all 
the rest of the Union, of which this debate has revealed the project. 
This is the practical application of the doctrine that any one State has 
a right to nullify any act of Congress which the State Legislature may 
please to pronounce Unconstitutional. This is the Key to the creed that 
Robbery is an attribute of Sovereignty, and that a State may declare 
itself the owner of all the Lands within its borders. Georgia by virtue 
of this doctrine, nullifies the Laws of Congress and the Treaties that 
promise protection to Indian tribes; South-Carolina nullifies the Tariff. 

1 From 1S24 to 1S30 Jared Sparks had edited the North American Review. 

2 Mr. Adams seems never to have contributed to the North American Review. 

3 Reference is probably made to " An Address of sundry Citizens of Colleton 
district to the people of the state of South Carolina," drawn up June 12, 1828 
(the YYalterborough address). See Niles' Register, XXXIV. 288. 

' The Edgefield, South Carolina, resolutions of July 26, 1828, are found 
ibid., XXXV. 60. 



336 Documents 

Missouri nullifies all the Land Laws — and takes the Lands into her own 
keeping. They all nullify the Tower of the Supreme Court. The Ex- 
ecutive of the Union bows in submission; and majorities of both Houses 
present that beautiful Spectacle of a Government disrobing itself, of its 
own powers. Meantime Massachusetts is mulcted in a Million of dol- 
lars, because her Legislature and judges nullified an Act of Congress 
sixteen or seventeen years since, and the Hartford Convention, for 
recommending the nullification of certain other Acts of the same body, 
is turned over to an Independent Court Martial and the second Section. 
Whether you will take this view of the Senatorial debate or not, it is 
in my mind by far the most important light in which it is to be con- 
sidered; for if the sacrifice of the property in the Public Lands, and of 
the cause and interest of free labour, is not already consummated beyond 
redemption, nothing can save them but a complete and fearless exposure 
of the nefarious conspiracy now in the full tide of successful experiment 
against them. 

For the sake of the Lhiion, and of honest Politics. I rejoice that this 
Subject must occupy, and summon to action all the faculties of your 
mind, and all the virtues of your heart — if not as a Reviewer, at least 
as a Legislator — and this is one of my Reasons for congratulating our 
Country and our native Commonwealth upon your Election to the Sen- 
ate of the State. 1 I have just received your "Politics of Europe"' — 
but have only space to assure you of the continued regard and attach- 
ment of your friend J. Q. Adams. 

XVIII. 

Alexander H. Everett Esq' Boston 

Washington ii. May 1830 
Dear Sir 

They used to tell a Story of a Bailly in some village of France, who 
upon the passage of Henri quatre through his jurisdiction felt himself 
under the aukward necessity of apologizing for the omission of a can- 
nonade in his honour. He commenced a set Speech to His Majesty by 
assuring him that there were seven reasons why they had not welcomed 
his arrival by the sound of the Cannon — the first of which was that they 
had no Cannon to fire. Whereupon Le Roi Henri gravely observed to 
the village Magistrate that he would dispense with the assignment of 
the six remaining Reasons, being altogether satisfied with the first. 

I have at least as many reasons as the worthy Bailly, for withhold- 
ing the promise to furnish you regularly with an Article for the suc- 
cessive numbers of your Review ; and I hope you will be as indulgent 
to me, as the Bearnois was to him, when I say that the condition of my 
health is the first. And as a portion of my health, there must be in- 
cluded a certain waywardness of disposition, humouring caprices in the 

1 Everett served in the Massachusetts legislature from 1830 to 1835. 

2 North American Review, XXX. 399, Everett's third article of that title 
for that journal. 



Letters of Adams to Everett 337 

application of my time — So that instead of refusing like Shakespear's 
Knight to give Reasons upon compulsion, I am more likely to give them 
in no other manner. I hope and trust it may be in my power to supply 
you occasionally with an Article; but whether for so soon as October, 
may be doubtful. I intreat you therefore to make provision for that 
number, without depending upon me; and if I should have one prepared 
so that it might come into that number, it shall be at your service to 
employ then or for the number next ensuing as may suit your con- 
venience. 

The subject upon which my own inclination at present dwells, as 
that which it would be most agreeable to me to treat would be a bio- 
graphical account of our late Charge d' Affaires at the Court of Brazil, 
William Tudor. Biography, does not come strictly within the plan of 
your Review ; but it seems to me that a short account of the life of him 
who was the founder, first proprietor and Editor of the work itself, far 
from being out of place, would be peculiarly suited to it. The establish- 
ment and continuance to this time of the North-American Review, forms 
itself an Epocha in the history of our Literature, the occasion of advert- 
ing to which would naturally present itself in a Life of M r Tudor; and 
some critical, perhaps some political observations would naturally arise 
from an appropriate notice of the Articles in the Review written by him, 
as well as of his other published writings. 

M r Tudor's Mother and Sister M rs Stewart, are my next-door neigh- 
bours at this place. In compliance with a request from them, I have 
written a short notice for the National Intelligencer, but which is a 
mere newspaper Article. The one which I should propose for the Re- 
view, would perhaps be as long as one of your usual Articles. But to 
prepare it I should want much information which is to be obtained only 
from the friends and acquaintance of M r Tudor in Boston. If you 
approve of my design, I shall need your assistance to procure it. 

I am very glad to learn that Charles is entering upon the field with 
you, and particularly that he begins with Grahame's history. 1 It is in- 
comparably the best account that has ever been published of our early 
Settlements, and as he is the first historian who has done Justice to our 
forefathers I hope the North-American Review will be the first to do 
ample Justice to him. 

I thank you for the kind expression of your opinions and disposi- 
tions with regard to the new trust in which we both stand associated in 
the Government of the concerns of our University. 2 Some improvement 
in the regulation of its affairs has been generally thought necessary, and 
expected by the public. M r Quincy has also been sensible of this 
necessity, and as I have understood is impressed with the Spirit rather 

1 Grahame's History of the United States was reviewed by Charles Francis 
Adams in the North American Review, XXXII. 174. 

2 President Adams had lately been chosen a member of the Board of 
Overseers of Harvard University. 



338 Documents 

of renovation than of innovation. I shall be happy to give him for that 
purpose all the aid in my power. 

I had fully intended and expected to be at my residence in Quincy 
a month earlier than this ; but a very comfortable situation here, and an 
obstinate Catarrhal complaint succeeded by rhumatic symptoms, have 
detained me for some weeks, though I still purpose to migrate north- 
ward before the close of this Month. I shall rely upon the pleasure of 
seeing you upon my return, and shall be glad to receive the subsequent 
numbers of the North-American Review, there, rather than here. 

Do you intend to suffer the Article in the last number, upon the 
Jefferson Correspondence, 1 to pass for the New-England critical and 
political judgment concerning that work? 

Yours faithfully J. Q. Adams. 

XIX. 

Alexander H. Everett Esq- Boston. 

Washington 24 May 1830. 2 

Dear Sir. 

I reply to your Letter of the 17" 1 though at the eve of my return to 
Quincy, where I hope to arrive at a time when you will be much occu- 
pied with public business. But as the Session of the Legislature will be 
short I expect to see you not long after my arrival, — and we may then 
freely converse upon topics too comprehensive to be discussed in Letters 
of conscionable dimensions. 

I had no intention to write an Article upon the Jefferson Correspond- 
ence for the Review, but I was certainly not satisfied with the Article 
upon it in the last number. M r Jefferson had a mind. I did hope to 
see in the North-American Review at least traces of a Mind capable of 
grappling with it. In the published Article, there is abundance of liber- 
ality. But the errors of M r Jefferson in Religion and Politics are not 
of that harmless Class which may be encountered with equivocal oppo- 
sition or hesitating dissent. There is a mode of defending which has 
the effect of surrendering a Cause. The Reviewer professes to disap- 
prove some of M r Jefferson's Religious opinions, but does not tell us 
what they are — but he approves his practice and recommendation of free 
enquiry, or free thinking — admires his total disregard of all human 
authority, and his studious avoidance of quoting the opinion of any other 
as the motive or foundation of his own ; and is half-inclined to regard 
this lofty consciousness of superiority over other minds as a new dis- 
covery in religious morals. 

'Article in the North American Review, XXX. 511, for April, 1830, by A. 
Ritchie, on the Randolph edition of the Memoirs and Correspondence of Thomas 
Jefferson. 

2 Most of this letter, and one passage in the next, was printed, without men- 
tion of the person addressed, in Old and New for February, 1873, VII. i35-!36- 
Nevertheless, for the sake of continuity, it is here reprinted. 



Letters of Adams to Everett 339 

The writer of the Article, favours his readers with much common- 
place argument, upon the reasonableness of free and unlimited enquiry, 
and commends M r Jefferson, for advising his young friend to examine 
the first-principles of natural religion for himself, and not to adopt with- 
out examination the principles of another. 

It is not difficult to discern where all this leads. The Reviewer does 
not or will not discern it. But observe — Examination is one thing — 
Rejection of all human authority is another. M r Jefferson examined 
much less than he rejected. He never examined the evidences of Chris- 
tianity. He rejected it as an imposture. Rejected it, not by the dictate 
of his own mind, but upon mere perusal of the bible, under the influence 
of the infidel School of his own and the immediately preceding age — 
Bolingbroke, Hume, Voltaire, Diderot, and the rest of that gang. What 
he meant by examination, was treating the Bible like Tooke's Pantheon 
— studying all the fashionable atheists of the age; and never looking 
into the writers in favour of Christianity. So far was M r Jefferson 
from encouraging or recommending examination into the truth of the 
Christian Religion, that he founded his University, with a cold, pro- 
fessed, and systematic exclusion of all theological studies from the insti- 
tution. 

He who recommends to a young man, a total rejection of human au- 
thority in the pursuit of his enquiries after religious truth, ought if not 
in Modesty, at least in consistency to include his own authority with 
the rest. And perhaps it would be quite as good advice to the natural 
impetuosity of youth to guard the juvenile enquirer against the possible 
illusions of his own mind, as against the opinions of all the rest of man- 
kind. The rejection of all human authority, in the formation of our 
religious opinions, is as unphilosophical, as the blindest confidence in an 
infallible Church. Examination is good; but it must be thorough. An 
University without theological Studies, however favourable to free 
thinking is but a sorry commentary upon free Inquiry. 

M r Jefferson was not willing that all his opinions upon Religion 
should be known to the world in his Life-time. He sometimes in- 
trenched himself in his Castle, and insisted upon his right to keep his 
opinions to himself. When D r Priestley was a political Apostle for him, 
he was prepared to pass for a Unitarian, and preferred the moral pre- 
cepts of Jesus to those of Moses, or of Socrates or of any other antient 
philosopher. But he was always as hostile to the whole system of Chris- 
tianity as the temper of popular opinion in this Country would endure. 
He occasionally betrayed his belief in the independent existence of mat- 
ter, and he had no faith in a future state of retribution, though he never 
very explicitly avowed this part of his doctrines. 

His opinions upon the judiciary, and his rancour against all judges, 
deserve searching scrutiny and fearless exposure, nearly as much as his 
religious infidelity. And the nullification doctrine, which may shiver 
this Union to atoms is the child of his own conception. It was like most 
of his political opinions a doctrine adopted and propagated to promote 



34-0 Documents 

his own views and prospects of ambition, at a particular time; and did 
effectually promote them. As to his Construction of the Constitution 
and his tender regard for State Rights, his annexation of Louisiana to 
the Union, by Acts of Congress, with his signature, and his Cumberland 
Road, are quite as authoritative of what he could do, as the Virginia and 
Kentucky Resolutions of what he could say. 

M r Jefferson's infidelity, his anti-judicialism, and his nullification, 
were three great and portentous Errors. I did hope that the Cause of 
the Cross, the Cause of Justice, and the Cause of the American Union, 
would have found in the North-American Review, a head and heart 
capable of defending them against the insidious and therefore more 
formidable assault of his posthumous Correspondence. As to the Lamb- 
like meekness with which the remnants of the Hartford Convention 
stomack his new, and gross denunciations of them, let it pass, if so my 
friend shall think just and fair, for liberality. 

That these great Errors should be probed to the bottom, and exposed 
in their naked nature I do believe to be highly necessary. We have had 
recent experience here, of the use which some of the most desperate 
profligates upon Earth are making of his name and authority, to kindle 
a conflagration in the confusion of which they may consummate their 
schemes of public robbery, and enthral the free blood of this Union in 
bondage to its Slavery. Xow is not a time for New-England to close 
her eyes, upon what is passing in this Confederation before them, nor 
to wink at the jugglery practising upon her simplicity, under the name, 
the countenance and the authority of Jefferson. 

For the Mulatto doctrine of political economy, which proves that 
two thirds of the federal revenue consists of a tax upon the export of 
Cotton, I commend you to the speech of M r M'Duffie now in a course 
of publication in the National Intelligencer. You will see that this rare 
political economist falls foul of you among others. He is also one of 
the champions of nullification, and tells some of our good natured mem- 
bers that if Congress will not repeal the Tariff, the Legislature of South- 
Carolina will. I am told that M' Gorham and M r Davis 1 answered both 
his argument and his swaggering, but their speeches have not yet been 
published. I have heard much also of a Speech of your brother's — but 
that was perhaps on the Indian question, which is prejudged. I have 
not seen him, I think for more than a Month. He is so much and so 
well engaged that I would not intrude upon him. 

Your faithful friend J. Q. Adams. 

XX. 

Ale; erett. Esq r Boston — 

Quincy 18. Sept' 1S31. 
r Sir. 
In compliance with my promise and your request I send you the 
Manuscript which I had prepared in reply to M r H. G. Otis and his 
1 Benjamin Gorham and John Davis, of Massachusetts. 



Letters of Adams to Everett 341 

twelve confederates, or rather to himself alone, he being on that occa- 
sion my only real adversary. 1 It was written under circumstance 
deeply afflictive and feelings so far beyond the reach of his pigmy Soul 
to excite, that it would not be fit for public inspection without severe 
revisal. It was never intended for publication without such revisal, 
and I now commit in friendly confidence its perusal to you, only with 
the condition that you will return it, with all the passages marked, of 
which you would advise the omission, and with such other observations 
as your friendship and judgment may suggest. 

I am well pleased that your proposed Article upon Nullification in 
the North American Review, should lie postponed, to embrace the ex- 
amination of M r Calhoun's new Theory, in connection with my Oration. 1 
This has already been severely criticised from various quarters, and 
among the rest from Head-quarters. I am told that a critic in the Salem 
Gazette, charges me with having borrowed my expositions of the united 
Declaration of Independence from M r Dane. I did not borrow them 
from M r Dane, but from the Paper itself, and from personal knowledge 
of the Time. M r Dane had the same opinion drawn from the same 
Sources: he no more borrowed it from me than I borrowed it from 
him, as is well known to Judge Story. But if you will read with atten- 
tion what M 1 ' Dane says upon the subject, in his Supplement, 3 you will 
see an intelligible concession that this doctrine was somewhat overlooked 
'at the Hartford Convention. 

M r Dane has so nobly redeemed that error, both by this concession, 
and by his magnificent benefaction to our University, that base would 
be the heart which could reproach him with it now ; and among my 
motives for suppressing hitherto my enclosed manuscript, not the least 
has been, a reluctance, at baring thus to the bone, in the face of the 
world, the character and proceedings of an Assembly of which we know 
that he was an unwilling member. 

I have sent to M r Calhoun a copy of my Eulogy upon M r Monroe, 
and with it one of my Oration, which I had not at first done, lest he 
should think it was meant as a cast of the glove. With the two pamph- 
lets, I have written him a few lines disclaiming all other than friendly 
intentions in offering them, but with the hope that his answer may give 
opening to a further exposition by himself of his present Sentiments 
with regard to the Union. 

1 The pamphlet alluded to is the famous Correspondence between John Quincy 
Adams, Esquire, President of the United Slates, and several Citizens of Massa- 
chusetts, concerning the Charge of a Design to dissolve the Union (Boston, 1S29) 
put forth by Otis and others. The manuscript alluded to, Adams's " Reply to 
the Appeal of the Massachusetts Federalists," first saw the light of print in 1S77, 
when published by Mr. Henry Adams in his Documents relating to Neiv England 
Federalism. 

2 Adams's oration at Quincy, July 4, 1831, in which he inveighed against 
the nullifiers. 

3 Appendix to Vol. IX. of Dane's Abridgment. 



34 2 Documents 

M r Madison's Letter to your brother 1 upon the Virginia Resolutions 
of 1798. and 1799. also contains a concession which I deem of no trivial 
importance. " It may often happen, says he, as experience proves, that 
erroneous constructions, not anticipated, may not be sufficiently guarded 
against in the language used.'' I consider him also as substantially 
admitting that the great object of those Resolutions was electioneering 
for M r Jefferson. That this was their great object I have always be- 
lieved, and as he remarks it was effectually answered. Neither your 
brother/ nor M r Webster has ventured in treating of those Resolutions 
now, to analyse them with a critical scrutiny of their language and im- 
port as affected by this purpose for which they were prepared ; to which 
they were adapted, and by which they were stimulated. I know not 
whether it will be within your plan to subject them to the discipline of 
that investigation, but I will not disguise the opinion, that no unanswer- 
able refutation of the nullification principle can be exhibited without it. 
I presume it might be conducted with all the respect, and even delicacy 
so justly due to M r Madison. 

M r Jefferson too is entitled to great Respect — though after the con- 
duct of his last days and the posthumous publication of his writings, 
delicacy towards him from New-England, is an exemplification of some- 
thing more than Christian meekness and forbearance. The Review of 
that work in the North-American, I have heard was written at the solici- 
tation of his grand-daughter's husband, and that is the best way that I 
know of accounting for its character. "Time, (says Voltaire)" which 
vindicates the characters of great men, finishes by " rendering even their 
faults respectable. ["] Of such respectability M r Jefferson has a very 
unreasonable share, and if the prudent servility of New-England Litera- 
ture suffers it to accumulate without energetic remonstrance she will 
feel its consequences, in every vein and artery and sinew and bone of 
her population. Your brother has noticed his courteous reason for pre- 
serving the Union — to keep New-England, as a plaything to buffet, and 
quarrel with; and the complimentary anecdotes about leading New- 
England federalists in the Ana — but I have seen those same federalists, 
not ashamed of linking themselves to the crazy Chariot wheels of My 
Lord Mayor, that he might ride over my neck, at the moment when he 
thought me prostrate forever; and silent — silent — chap-fallen as the skull 
of Yorick the King's jester, under charges in these writings of Jeffer- 
son, that their darling champions were bribed by British gold. 

You will find in the enclosed manuscript that I have handled him 
not quite so gently as your brother Edward. He deserves nothing but 
rigorous Justice from me — and that he shall always have. He was a 
great Man — but his characteristic vice was duplicity — a vice which orig- 
inated in his overweening passion for popularity, and his consequent 

1 Letter of August. 1830, to Edward Everett. See it in Letters and oilier 
Writings of James Madison, IV. 95-105. 

2 Edward Everett's article on the "Debate in the Senate", North American 
Review, XXXI. 462. 



Letters of Adams to Everett 343 

desire to be all things to all men. As to his Constitutional puritanism 
— to say nothing of the Cumberland Road, the man who with the Oath 
of God upon his Soul, after writing his Letter to D r Sibley upon the 
Louisiana purchase, could sign the Bills extending the Laws of the 
United States over that Territory comes with an ill-grace to claim a 
narrow Construction of the Powers of Congress. 

I need not add the assurance or the injunction of perfect Confidence 
in which this Letter is written, by your friend 

J. Q. Adams. 

XXI. 

Alexander H. Everett Esq' Boston 

Quincy 18. August 1832 
Dear Sir. 

It may not be in my power to meet you according to your kind invi- 
tation at 4 in the afternoon of Monday, but I shall probably visit Bos- 
ton in the course of the week, and will then not fail to call at your house, 
where I shall be happy to converse with you on the subject to which 
your Letter refers. I regretted much last year that the Anti-Masons 
of this Commonwealth, thought it necessary to nominate and support 
for Governor a Candidate other than the incumbent, 1 and expressly 
declined their nomination, declaring my approbation of the general 
course of his Administration. Could I now contribute to his re-election 
for the ensuing year, I would most cheerfully yield every suitable aid 
in my power. 

With regard to the Electoral ticket for the Presidential Election, I 
incline to the opinion that having reference to both my Situations past 
and present I ought not to meddle with it at all. I have been earnestly 
solicited to deliver a public address to the Anti-Masons, to attend as a 
delegate at their projected Convention at Worcester, or to countenance 
them merely by my presence ; all which I have declined. At the Elec- 
tion of 1824. it was a received Moral and Political Maxim of the Na- 
tional Republicans, that Caucusing by members of Congress, for the 
Election of a President was improper ; and virtually forbidden by the 
Constitution, which disqualifies them from serving in the Electoral Col- 
leges. I was of that opinion myself and avowed it. I have seen no 
occasion to change the opinion, and see none now. 

With respect to conciliating the Anti-Masons in this Commonwealth, 
though it is rather late for the National Republicans to begin, it may 
be better late than never. I most sincerely and heartily wish that they 
would. The National Republicans of this Commonwealth have not un- 
derstood — they do not and I fear will not understand the State of the 

1 Levi Lincoln. The history of antimasonry in Massachusetts, and of 
Adams's relation to it, may be followed in Dr. Charles McCarthy's monograph, 
"The Antimasonic Party." in the Annual Report of the American Historical 
Association for 1002, I. 516-525. 

AM. HIST. REV., VOL. XL — 23. 



344 Documents 

Masonic and Anti-Masoni on. About a year ago the Grand 

Lodge of Rhode-Island, published a formal defence of Masonry, in which 
they said they could not tell whether Morgan had been murdered or not 
for they knew nothing about it. 1 have read a declaration published 
on the last day of the last year, signed by twelve hundred Masons of 
this our own State who speak of a high state of excitement which liad 
been m the public mind, carried to it " by the partial and inflammatory 
representations of certain offences committed by a few misguided mem- 
bers of the Masonic Institution in a Sister State". The National Re- 
publicans of Massachusetts know nothing about these certain Offences, 
but they have for two years past taken most especial care to turn out 
of office every Anti-Mason upon whom they could lay their hands, all 
the while, bitterly complaining of the persecuting and proscriptive Spirit 
of political Anti-Masonry. 

The cause of Anti-Masonry must and will survive the next Presiden- 
tial-Election. And if the National Republicans of Massachusetts really 
wish for the co-operation of Anti-Masons. I have no doubt they can 
obtain it. Whether they can agree upon a ticket for the Presidential 
Election now so near at hand is doubtful in my mind, but I take it for 
granted that for this time the National Republicans can carry their 
Elections without them. The Masonic Declaration of last Winter, to 
which I have alluded considers the Anti-Masonic excitement as having 
subsided, and they certainly did appear then to have lost ground in this 
State, and at least to have gained none in the States of New-York and 
Pennsylvania. There is now an apparent Union of the two parties in 
New- York, but whether it will be cordial or successful is very proble- 
matical. The National Republicans there, are more sanguine than the 
Anti-Masons, and there are wounds between them not easily to be 
healed. You know how it is here. 

Upon the Subject of Anti-Masonry, I have not suffered myself to 
be excited, although there has been no lack of provocations. But I Jo 
know something about the Masonic Murder of Morgan, and the Cluster 
of i i rpetrated for the • n of his Book. I know some- 

thing also of the Laws, Oath ions and Penalties of Masonry, 

and I have not been unob i I their practical effect, from murder 

under th : obligation - to the prevarication of pretending 

that to have the throat cut from ear to ear means expulsion from the 
Lodge. If the Masonic controversy were now raging in Cochin-China, 
anc i Biram Abiff had never been heard upon this Continent, 

the Subject would be worthy of investigation as a philosophical enquiry 
into the mysteries of human nature. I have endeavoured to consider it 
as a question upon the first prii morals. I have sought for the 

facts from the Masonic as well as from the Anti-Masonic side, and have 
read Henry Brown as well as Avery Allyn and David Bernard. 1 Col 1 

'Henry Brown, Narrative of the Anti-Masonick Excite* he Western 

\'e\v York, 1829); David Bernard, Light on Masonry 

t I tica. 1. 



Letters of Adams to Everett 345 

Stone's Letters, 1 which you have doubtless seen, were addressed to me, 
in consequence of enquiries which I had addressed to a brother Mason 
of his in Philadelphia, which were communicated to him. Stone is a 
Knight Templar, and as you know a very ardent National Republican. 
His Masonic Spirit lingers with him through his whole book, but he is 
an honest man, unperverted, even by the fifth libation; and a bold one, 
or he never would have dared to proclaim the Truths contained in those 
Letters. I ask your particular attention to the Letters from 21. to 25 
inclusive, and to the 48"' and I wish you would recommend the perusal 
of them, tn those of your National Republican friends who are accessible 
to reason upon this Subject. I abstain purposely from any public mani- 
festation of opinion upon this topic, to avoid all appearance of inter- 
fering with the approaching Presidential Election. 

Faithfully your friend J. 0. Adams. 

XXII. 

Alexander H. Everett Esq- Boston 

Ouincy 25. July 1833 
My dear Sir 

I have delayed answering your friendly Letter of the 12"' inst! under 
an expectation of the pleasure of meeting you in Boston, or here, and 
of conversing with you freely on the subject to which it relates. 

But as this may be farther delayed, I write to relieve you from all 
suspense with regard to the arrangements which you may deem it expe- 
dient to make. 

Reflection tends from day to day to confirm my impressions against 
consenting to be a candidate for the Office of Governor of the Common- 
wealth. My principal objections arise from a conviction that the ques- 
tions between Masonry and Anti-Masonry will constitute the main ob- 
jects of political controversy within the Commonwealth during the ensu- 
ing year; and that in the operation which they must have upon the 
Affairs of the State. I could not possibly hold the balance between the 
parties so as to give satisfaction to the People of the State, or indeed 
to either of the parties, in collision with each other. A sharply con- 
tested Election, succeeded by a turbulent administration, and a furious 
renewal of the contest at the end of the year, is all that I could expect 
for myself or anticipate for the public. " Le jeu ne vaut pas la chan- 
delle ". 

I am as you know, of long standing an outlaw to the federal party 
and especially to its leaders in this State. I am worse than an Outlaw 
in the estimation of the Masons and Masonic Party; and they constitute 
between them three fourths of the People. Concurring with the general 
Opinions of the National Republicans with regard to the interests in- 
volved in the Administration of the general Government I may hope to 
represent them with Satisfaction to them and to myself in Congress; 

'William L. Stone, Letters on Masonry and Antimasonry. addressed to 
Hon. John Ouincy Adams (New York, 1832). 



346 Documents 

it is morally certain that I could not represent them to their Satisfaction 
as Governor of the State, and I perceive no attainable end, of induce- 
ment to try an experiment with anticipation approaching to certainty 
of its ultimate failure. Here, in my Solitude, disburthened of all respon- 
sibility for public measures I enjoy a tranquility for which no political 
elevation encumbered with its cares and vexations can compensate; and 
whatever of selfishness there may be in this Consideration, I see no 
stake of public welfare, to be contended for, which should forbid me to 
indulge it. Feeble and inefficient as my Services may be in the Legis- 
lative Councils of the Union, I am convinced they would be more so, in 
the Executive of the Commonwealth. 

I am, Dear Sir, ever faithfully your friend 

J. Q. Adams. 
XXIII. 
Alexander H. Everett Esq Boston 
My dear Sir. Q UINCY 2 + September 1833 

In accepting the nomination recently tendered to me by the Conven- 
tion held at Boston, 1 I deemed it proper to state for the Consideration 
of the People of the Commonwealth the Principles upon which I acceded 
to that measure — the only Principles upon which I would accept of any 
nomination or of the Office to which the nomination applied. The first 
of these Principles was that of merging all party Spirit and feeling, in 
the general interest of the whole Commonwealth. The next was con- 
tributing as far as might be in my Power, to heal the divisions of party, 
to promote the harmony of the Union, and to maintain the Industry of 
Freedom and the purity of the Constitution. 

You have perfectly understood the meaning of this pledge; and you 
are well acquainted with my principles in reference to this subject from 
other and anterior sources. Intelligent men cannot and candid men will 
not misunderstand them. To others no explanation or developement of 
them would be satisfactory. On full deliberation, appretiating the mo- 
tive of your communication, and estimating the high value of your 
friendship, I can only repeat what I then said; adding merely the assur- 
ance that I am accustomed to understand and construe my promises 
according to the unequivocal import of the words in which they are con- 
veyed, and that you are at liberty to make such use of this Letter as you 
may think proper. 

I am. Dear Sir, ever faithfully your friend 

J. 0. Adams. 
XXIV. 

Alexander H. Everett Esq- Boston. 

Washington i. December 1835 
Dear Sir. 

I have received your Letter of the 25"' ult" mentioning that you had 
given a Letter of introduction to me to M r Fisk late Editor of the 

1 Antimasonic. McCarthy, op. cit., p. 520. 



Letters of Adams to Everett t>A7 

Reformer Newspaper. He has not yet delivered the Letter, and I have 
not heard of his arrival here. I think I have recently heard something 
of the Paper, but do not recollect ever having seen it. What were the 
Reforms, which it patronized or recommended ? 

There have been of late years a goodly number of Editors and cor- 
respondents of the daily Journals in most of the Northern cities who 
have passed their winters at Washington, and who from time to time 
have entertained the public with intelligence from the Metropolis of the 
Union. I find it announced that the Editor of the Bangor Whig and 
Courier, and one of the Editors of the Boston Atlas are to be of the 
corresponding corps during the approaching Session of Congress. 
Judging of the future from the past it may be expected that their com- 
munications will be sufficiently indicative of the purposes for which they 
are employed, and of the services they are to perform. Whether M r 
Fisk proposes to pass the winter here, or is to be a correspondent of any 
Journalist, I may probably learn from himself. 

It gives me pleasure to learn that you also propose to pay a visit here 
in the course of the Winter. It will be an interesting object to you to 
know what the different parties which will be assembled here have in 
prospect before them ; and what the result of all their collisions and com- 
binations will be likely to turn out. As yet we see little more than the 
crumbling of the political parties as they have existed under this admin- 
istration, into ruin. There must be during the approaching Session of 
Congress a new composition of parties, and it is scarcely possible yet 
to foresee what that will be. 

M r Van Buren is the candidate of the Democracy — so self styled ; 
and although that party have not always been true to their name, and 
have often mistaken their friends for their foes, and vice versa, they 
have when acting in concert always ruled the Country ; and always be- 
stowed the great Offices of Government Legislative and Executive. But 
Democracy, in our history, has hitherto been the great Engine of the 
South to controul and manage the affairs of the whole Union. Hereto- 
fore they have succeeded in all but two instances in securing the Presi- 
dency to one of their own number, and the Office of Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States has also for the last thirty-five 
years been held by one of them. He was however not of the democracy. 
He was a federalist, and by his great talents, and his personal influence 
and popularity has during the whole of that time held the democracy in 
check. There is every reason to fear that this state of things is now to 
be reversed. That the next Chief Justice will be not only a Southern 
Slave holder, but a convert from rank federalism to rank democracy and 
a man of exceedingly doubtful moral principle. 1 On the other hand, if 
the democracy of the South go for Van Buren, he will certainly be 
elected. There are indications favourable to him both in the South and 
the West, the sources of which I look to with some distrust. A North- 

1 The allusion is to Taney. 



34S Documents 

ern man, elected by Southern and Western Democracy presents no very 
auspicious futurity for the local interests and even the rights of the 
North. M r Van Buren is pledged to support the principles of the Jackson 
Administration — Pledged to uncompromising hostility to the Bank of the 
United States — pledged to unqualified Anti-Slavery abolition — Pledged 
I greatly fear to sacrifice the Public Lands to the grasping temper of 
the new Western States. I have no personal relations with him beyond 
the exchange of a visit or a card, and seek none. You have not the 
same motives for keeping aloof from him; and when you come here, you 
will have opportunities of meeting and conversing with him. and of sat- 
isfying yourself whether upon the cardinal points of policy to which I 
have alluded, better hopes can be entertained than I have been able to 
conceive or to encourage. 

The opposition to Van Buren consists 1. Of part of the Southern 
democracy; deserters from Jacksonism, in two divisions. One of Cal- 
houn milliners, chiefly confined to South-Carolina, but entirely controul- 
ing that State. The other of White Tennesseans, drawn off from the 
same party, by the late Speaker John Bell. They will probably unite 
all the servile votes of the South. I mean all the votes which will be 
biassed exclusively by Slave-holding passion, prejudice and panic— and 
they will not be few. These two divisions will perhaps melt up into 
one. 2. Of Western Clay Democrats — or rather of all the Clay Demo- 
crats. This party got up the late Baltimore triumphal banquet, and the 
Meeting at Philadelphia, headed by Col 1 Watmough and Josiah Randall. 
This party appears to be now very weak; and likely to be overawed into 
submission to another 3. The Webster federalists. All the remnants 
of blue-light federalism have rallied together and made Webster their 
forlorn hope. Clay as you know rose upon the broadest shoulders of 
democracy. But his European Expedition tinged both his principles 
and his deportment with Aristocracy — perhaps to the improvement of 
his character, but to the loss of his standing with the Democracy. It is 
now again said that he will yield his pretensions as a Candidate for 
the Presidency; and that his party will support Webster. As it is very 
certain that neither of them can be elected, it may be M r Clay's policy 
to acquiesce in giving M r Webster the chief command, with the cer- 
tainty of defeat. Nothing else can possibly effect the amalgamation of 
Clay democracy with Webster federalism. 4. The Pennsylvania and 
perhaps the Vermont Anti-masons. In both States however the Anti- 
masons are exceedingly divided, and I think there is no prospect of 
their uniting upon any Candidate for the Presidency. The result may 
be to break up the anti-masonic party in both those States. 5. The \\ olf 
portion of the Pennsylvania democracy. I believe it was the opposition 
to Van Buren. which principally, if not wholly caused the schism be- 
tween the Wolf and Muhlenberg democrats. Whether they can be re- 
united or not can scarcely be foreseen till the meeting of Congress, and 
of the Legislature of Pennsylvania. It is needless to say that of these 
five parties all opposed to Van Buren, there are no two that hold any 



Letters of Adams to Everett 349 

great political principle in common. Most of them call themselves 
whigs, only for the sake of calling their adversaries Tories. 

The Antimasons of Massachusetts after presenting to the whigs a 
Candidate for the Office of Governor, 1 and uniting with them to elect 
him, have wisely withdrawn from all further association with them, 
especially with regard to the Presidency. The Government of the State 
is yet in the hands of the Whigs, but how they will manage it is subject 
to ominous conjecture. The mere Jackson party has not only been a 
very small, but internally a much divided party, with this peculiar prop- 
erty that the interest and the policy of its leaders has been to keep the 
party as small as possible; to engross all the lucrative offices to them- 
selves. How far M r Van Buren will be disposed to countenance and 
sustain this policy, I am unable to say. You will have no difficulty how- 
ever in ascertaining, if you come here in the course of the winter. 

The whigs of Boston have done themselves no service by relieving 
you from your labours as a member of the Legislature. They will call 
for them again when they get rid of some of their Notions. I have read 
with much interest your Speech in Faneuil-Hall, and have been amused 
with the castigation, of the Daily Advertiser, and Centinel for having 
dared to publish it. In what condition must a party be driven to such 
expedients to gag the freedom of their own Press? What must be the 
moral principle of a party, so convulsed at the admission of every ray of 
light? I perceive they are shockingly scandalized too at your consent- 
ing to deliver an Address at Salem, on the 8"' of January. 2 Their 
treachery to you sits heavy on their Souls ; and as usual they are labour- 
ing to transform it into your treachery to them. 

I trust you will hold the even tenour of your way, heedless alike of 
their censure or their applause. Whoever adheres to principle, must 
make up his mind to be charged with inconsistency and apostasy for 
every refusal to be hand-cuffed with the manacles of party, and when 
allegiance to men, is made the only standard of political orthodoxy, the 
praise or blame of the hirelings of the press, stimulated from behind the 
Scenes and paid for by the paragraph are equally worthless and con- 
temptible. 

I am. Dear Sir, very respectfully yours J. Q. Adams. 

XXV. 

Alexander H. Everett Esq- Boston 

Washington 10 May 1836 
My ileiir Sir 

Your Letter of the 29 ult" from Norfolk House Roxbury has been 
some days received. Your new arrangements with regard to your future 
residence, seem to me in every point of view' judicious, and I heartily 
wish you may find them result as successfully to yourself as you can 

1 Edward Everett. 

1 Alexander H. Everett, An Address delivered at Salem, on the Eighth of 
January. 1836, in Commemoration of the Victory of New Orleans (Boston, 1836). 



350 Documents 

desire. The treatment which you have received from the political party 
with which since your last return from Europe you have been associated 
has given me more and deeper concern than that which I have experi- 
enced from them myself. As a man so much younger, and with a long 
career of capacity for public usefulness before you, I have felt your 
removal from the service of our Country as a misfortune to her, while 
my own, at this time can scarcely be an anticipation of the natural and 
necessary course of Events. Whether your residence in the County of 
Norfolk, will by the Constitution of the Commonwealth be of sufficient 
duration to make you eligible from that District to Congress at the ensu- 
ing election next November, I cannot say, but as I understand M r Jack- 
son 1 intends to decline being a candidate for re-election, nothing could 
give me more cordial pleasure than that you should be his successor. 
What the state of parties in the District will be cannot even now be very 
clearly foreseen. The Presidential Election would seem to be ascer- 
tained, by the result of the recent elections in Connecticut, Rhode-Island 
and Virginia, though some doubts are said to have arisen from adverse 
indications in those of New- York, and though new questions of very 
grave and threatening aspect, are starting up, as if by evil enchantment, 
which may yet have unexpected bearings upon the issue of the Election. 
A knot of Florida Indians, probably not five hundred, perhaps not three 
hundred in number have absorbed all the energies of our whole standing 
army, with large bodies of auxiliary militia, and cannot be found. Six 
Generals and at least ten thousand men have been four months in search 
of them, and they are as introuvdbles as the famous chamber of deputies 
of Louis 18. They have in the meantime but too fatally found some of 
our citizens habitations, and some of our ill-fated detachments of troops, 
whom they have scalped and tomahawked according to the custom of 
their tender mercies. Two Millions of dollars of appropriation extra- 
ordinary have already been swallowed up, by this miniature cormora[nt] 2 
and nothing has been done; — there is not even a prospect that this in- 
visible wa[r]~ will terminate the present year, and the climate is already 
committing ravages among our troops, more terrible than the savages 
themselves. 

In the meantime another and far more portentous War. has blazed 
up, with the suddenness of a faggot fire kindled in a forest. It is close 
upon our Southern border, and we are in the most iminent danger of 
being involved in its conflagration. Two Millions of dollars have al- 
ready been voted by the House of Representatives in preparation to meet 
its blast ; a second Regiment of dragoons has been added to the standing 
Army of the Union, and the President of the United States has been 
authorised for three years to accept the services and to saddle the Coun- 
try with the burden of supporting ten thousand Volunteers of the Militia 
of the Western States. So suddenly have these measures flashed upon 
us that neither of the two Bills has passed the Senate, though both have 

1 William Jackson of Newton. 2 Paper torn. 



Letters of Adams to Everett 3 5 1 

passed the house with extreme precipitation. The last Million appro- 
priation Bill in one day — last Saturday. The nature and causes of this 
War, were then also for the first time partially disclosed by communi- 
cations from the Executive, and it threatens to be nothing less than a 
foreign, a civil, a servile and an Indian war combined in one. And that 
of this War, we have been or are to be the aggressors. It is on our 
part a War with Mexico, for the re-establishment of Slavery in the 
province of Texas, and for the conquest and annexation of Texas, and 
of other portions of Mexico to our Union, and the re-subjugation of 
emancipated Slaves, and the conquest of the Mexican Provinces, and 
their annexation as slave-holding States of our Union, and the exter- 
mination of the Indians whom we have been driving like swine into a 
pen West of the Mississippi, are all parts of one System of War policy, 
bursting upon us at this moment. In this state of things I must not look 
back, for clashing opinions with M r Webster or any other Northern 
man. My conflict now is with the nullifier and Slave-holder, and with 
their conjoint system of policy, and this conflict has already commenced. 
I have taken my stand ; and in the debate of last Saturday, wretchedly 
reported both in the Globe and Intelligencer, you will yet see what 
passed between M r Thompson of South-Carolina, aided by M r Balie 
Peyton of Tennessee, and me. Thompson' is the Prince of nullifiers in 
the House. Balie Peyton is the Ajax of the White standard. Harrison 
has already lost a Son in this Mexican War, and some at least of his 
friends in the House are infected with its frenzy. M r Webster has not 
yet spoken but his friends in the House upon this point are all with 
me. That is they vote with me, though they have not forgiven me for 
demolishing their Chateaux en Espagne for the next President. 

My resolution of 22'' January 1 therefore still sleeps on the Speaker's 
table as it did when you left this place. The Appropriation Bills and 
other measures of the first urgency, have occupied the House incessantly 
since January, and in the meantime other objects of deliberation have 
arisen upon which my views have not been conformable to those of the 
ruling majority in the House. I incline therefore both from principle 
and policy to use forbearance towards M r Webster, and to suffer the 
vituperations of his friends in the House to pass without reply. The 
shallow and inconsistent pretences upon which the three Million Appro- 
priation was rejected in the Senate have been totally abandoned; the 
opposition majority have melted into a minority, and the Webster whigs 
of our own delegation, have so thoroughly parted from their nullifying, 
White and Harrison associates, that all the important purposes of my 
Resolution have been attained, and I could secure nothing by pressing 

1 " Resolved, That so much of the message of the President of the United 
States to Congress at the commencement of the present session, as relates to 
the failure, at the last session of Congress, of the bill containing the ordinary 
appropriations for fortifications, be referred to a select committee, with instruc- 
tions to inquire into, and report to the House, the causes and circumstances of 
the failure of that bill." 



352 Documents 

the subject further but a personal triumph, which the ruling majority 
themselves may not be more willing to aid me in gaining than their 
adversaries. If any thing now remains necessary for my defence, I shall 
rather prefer to address it to my Constituents through the Press. 

For your anniversary Address at Bunker's Hill I have no suggestion 
to offer you, which could even claim admission among those which will 
present themselves to your own mind. You will not fall into common- 
place bragging with which the theme is redundant, and you know too 
well how to temper panegyrick with philosophy, to require a leading 
idea of restraint upon the propensity merely to admire and to contemn. 

I have expected our Session would close about the last of this Month, 
but if the cloud on our Southwestern frontier should not clear away, 
we shall hardly separate before the I s . 1 of July. We have important 
appropriation Bills yet on hand. 

I remain, very faithfully yours J. Q. Adams. 

XXVI. 

A H. Everett Esq- Norfolk House Roxbury, Mass tts 

Washington 7. Nov r 1837 
Dear Sir 

I received a few days since your Letter of 20. Ocf enclosing a num- 
ber of the Norfolk Argus, and I had a few days before received your 
address to the Literary Society at Providence, 1 which I read with great 
pleasure. 

Your view of the contrasted character of the Literature of the i8'. h 
and I9 ,h centuries is highly interesting, and I hope on the whole cor- 
rect. I am under some apprehension that it sees the philosophy of the 
age in fairer colours than the reality will warrant. I have taken as yet 
no cognizance of Monsieur Cousin's system and I have been impressed 
with a painful idea, that the sense of religion is almost entirely extin- 
guished in France. I observe that you have not noticed Benjamin Con- 
stant's work upon Religion — nor Lord Bolingbroke, among the infidel 
writers of the last age. 

Speculative atheism is the. most unfortunate of all religions, for it 
can make its appeal to no honest motive in the human heart. If the 
creed of the atheist were true, man would have no good reason for be- 
lieving it, for truth itself would lose all its value. Right and Wrong, 
have no meaning, but for a responsible hereafter, and that responsibility 
depends entirely upon the existence of a moral ruler of the Universe. 
Man is the only animated being on this globe, who has the sense of 
Right and Wrong. Take that from him, and his Law is the Law of the 
Tyger, the Shark, the Vulture and the Rattlesnake. The question be- 
tween the Atheist and the Deist, is beyond the solution of human reason. 

1 A. H. Everett, An Address to the Philermenian Society of Brown University, 
on the Moral Character of the Literature of the last and present Century, delivered 
at Providence, September 4, 1837 (Boston, 1837). 



Letters of Adams to Everett 353 

Voltaire's only reason for believing the existence of a God was that he 
could not conceive of a watch without a watchmaker. But when he had 
the watchmaker, how could he conceive of him without a prior cause. 
In the beginning, says the Book of Genesis, God created the Heaven and 
the earth. But what was before the beginning? 

Ante mare et tellus, et quod tegit omnia coelum, 
Unus erat toto Naturae vultus in orbe, 
Quem dixere Chaos ; 
says Ovid— but what was before Chaos? The foundation of moral 
principle is not in the belief of the existence of a God, but in that of 
man's responsibility to him. and a future state of retribution. Voltaire 
did not believe this. He believed in a creator of the Universe ; but not 
in his moral Government. 

Bolingbroke says that it is desirable to believe in a future state, but 
that all the phenomena of Nature are against it. 

Benjamin Constant argues against all religious principle; but shrinks 
from his own conclusions. He disclaims infidelity, and professes to 
believe as much as the protestant faith requires. 

Hume, Diderot, D'Alembert, Mirabeau the father, d'Holbach, Con- 
dorcet, were cold blooded Atheists, and could therefore have no steady 
system of morals. The Morals of England in the last age were chiefly 
sustained by D r Johnson and Burke; and since them by Mackintosh. 

The Morals of France, I fear are very bad, precisely because there 
is no basis of Religion for them to rest upon. There is a fearful look- 
ing for of judgment in Tocqueville's Book on Democracy, as well as in 
Benj anient [sic] Constant. Beranger's Songs are as licentious as any 
thing in Voltaire or La Fontaine. 

The application of your discourse, in your peroration to the young 
men whom you addressed is admirable. 

I >"ish I could as [sic] concur as cordially with you, in the political 
opinions, vhich are dividing the Country at this time, as in your views 
of the Literature of the last and of the present century. The Resolu- 
tion of the Democratic Convention at Worcester against the annexation 
of Texas, and the Resolution of the Norfolk Convention, approving my 
course with regard to the right of petition, were grateful to me, and are 
entitled to my highest respect. Nor is it without pain that I differ so 
essentially as I do from the other Resolutions adopted on those two 
occasions. I had hoped that the calamities brought upon the Country 
by the headstrong passions, and self-idolizing ignorance of the last Ad- 
ministration, would have operated as a warning to the present. 

The leading measures of the administration at the recent Session of 
Congress have been in my judgment so unwise and so unjust that I 
found myself compelled to take a stand of the most decided resistance 
against them. My Speeches in both cases will be published and shew 
the grounds of my opposition. The extreme injustice of withholding 
from the Northern States the 4"' instalment of the deposit act and of 
releasing the Southmost and Western States from the obligations of 



354 



Documents 



paying that same money, unaccountably suffered to be accumulated in 
their banks, was so disgusting to me, that I could not endure to see it 
unreproved, especially when I ascertained that the real intention was to 
deprive the Northern States of the fourth instalment altogether. 

I would have consented to a delay of the fourth instalment, and have 
voted, for both the bills, and for the Treasury Note Bill, if the Admin- 
istration would have consented by an appropriation of funds to secure 
the payment at the day, which they were obliged to fix for the term of 
postponement. They inflexibly refused this pledge, and lost 60 or 70 
votes, for their three bills. Upon so small a concession the Adminis- 
tration could have carried all their measures except the divorce or sub- 
treasury by four fifths of the whole house. 

As to the sub-treasury — Bedlam seems to me to be the only place 
where it could have originated. A War with the Money Power, to pro- 
vide for the collecting, keeping, and disbursing the Money of the Nation. 
A Divorce of Bank and State! Why a divorce of Trade and Shipping 
would be as wise to carry on the business of a merchant. A divorce 
of Army and Fire-Arms, in the face of an invading enemy, a divorce 
of Law and a Bench of Judges to carry into execution the Statutes of 
the Land, would be as reasonable ! But I must refrain. 

The movements of the nullification party here, and of their head 
have not served to recommend the Subtreasury Scheme to the friends 
of the Union. It came into the House, under the patronage of ultra- 
nullification. And this, exactly cotemporaneous with a Southern Con- 
vention held at Augusta in Georgia against the Commerce and Mer- 
chants of the North. 

May the day be not remote when we shall harmonize in political 
opinions, not less than in the estimate of past and present Literature; 
and may your prospects in future, whether political or literary be pros-^ 
perous and happy. 

Ever your friend J. Q. Adams. 



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